Subway trains return to New York's financial district

NEW YORK - Wall Street moved a step closer to resuming business as usual when subway trains began rolling into the financial district early on Saturday (NY time) for the first time since terror attacks toppled the World Trade Center and shut down stock markets for the longest time since the First World War.

The rattle of the city's famous subway cars in predawn darkness was a prelude to the planned reopening of the stock markets on Monday.

The return of public transportation came as emergency workers continued to dig in the rubble of the twin 110-story towers that collapsed after Tuesday's air attacks that left hundreds dead and thousands more missing.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani promised on Friday night that public transportation -- buses and underground trains that daily carry thousands of brokers, bankers and traders into America's financial heart -- would start running again in part of the district on Saturday. Buses and trains had been running normally in the rest of Manhattan, but not in the southern tip below the World Trade Center to Battery Park.

The New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq all assured investors on Friday they would reopen for trading on Monday morning after being closed for four days. The US stock market has not shut down for so long since the outbreak of the First World War.

At a news conference on Friday night, Giuliani said subway lines and buses would be running east of Broadway on Saturday morning. Cars, however, will not be allowed in the downtown area on Saturday.

A spokesman for the city's Transit Authority told Reuters that subway trains began rolling into Lower Manhattan around 1.30 a.m.

Buses were expected to be taking passengers into the financial district later in the morning.

Giuliani said businesses that needed space would be able to relocate temporarily to a building on Water Street -- on the East River across from Brooklyn -- now occupied by the city's human resources agency.

The mayor also said city officials planned to open an information center for financial companies.

"This will allow businesses to get in to open their offices to test their systems so that they can be operational by Monday a.m.," a city official said. The center will be located at 80 Pine St.

Asked when cars would be allowed back into the downtown financial area, the official said, "There is no ETA (estimated time of arrival) on that."

The mayor, when asked whether only financial services employees would be allowed to re-enter the area, displayed a flash of his usual sense of humour.

"I don't know how we would check that ... give you a quiz on whether you know a junk bond?" he said.

- REUTERS

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