The forever trains return

Unlike London and Tokyo and Mexico City and Seoul and Paris and Shanghai and Moscow, alone among all the great cities of the world, only the greatest, only New York, never stops. Only here, subways run 24 hours a day to every station across the length and breadth of the boroughs.

This never-stop service, here since the 1904 opening, did stop temporarily a year ago in the darkest days of COVID during the wee hours, supposedly for intensive cleaning. And now, as we come out of the plague with falling infections and rising vaccinations, 24-hour trains are coming back. In two weeks, on May 17, the 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. closures conclude. It’s about time.

The return is welcome most to the workers who work the hardest, the overnight shifts, from hospitals to food stores and soon, to restaurants and bars, set to safely resume extended hours. For too long, they had to endure complex and expensive commutes. No more.

We supported the COVID-imposed emergency and were confident it would end, unlike many of the carping critics who claimed it was a secret plot to kill overnight service for good. What was once will be again. However, the gains this past year must be continued. Vastly improved cleanliness must be maintained, as must the phenomenally successfully suite of policies used to coax homeless folks out of stations and cars and into safe shelters and other services.

Since last year, 2,529 people traded a cold bench or floor for a warm, clean bed, and 826 are still in their shelters. The outreach, coupled with new rules barring large shopping carts, limiting time in a station to one hour and requiring all passengers to exit at the final stop, must be made permanent.

Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio barely talk these days, but congratulations to both men and congratulations to their appointees: Pat Foye, Sarah Feinberg and Steve Banks. They used a crisis to improve lives. While 24-hour trains are returning, there can no going back on that.