Two days after hurricane Irene brought New York’s mass transit to a standstill for the first time in its history, passengers at the city’s major transit hubs were scrambling in its aftermath despite partial restoration of service.

Suspended service on rail lines — NJ Transit, Metro North and Amtrak were not operating Monday morning — led to vacation cancellations, missed first day classes, confused tourists and, above all, delays in getting to work.

Metro-North partially restored service by Monday afternoon, and NJ Transit said it was working to restore service by Tuesday but warned customers to expect delays.

Danny Vasquez, 51, an X-ray technician at North Shore LIJ in Long Island, was patiently watching the Long Island Rail Road schedules display at Penn Station on Monday. He expected to leave at 8:21 a.m., but the departure was delayed to 8:51 a.m.

“If it keeps getting delayed, I’m gonna call the office and tell them I’m not coming,” Vasquez said. “I don’t want to get stuck in Long Island.”

Vasquez said he usually gets to work at 8 a.m., but has been planning with his manager since Friday to arrive an hour later because it was expected patients would have difficulties in arriving on time for their scheduled appointments.

The LIRR had restored a part of their lines on Monday, but with cancellations and delays.

Vasquez, like other passengers who used the subway Monday morning for a part of their commute, said it was operating normally or with some delays. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, subway service had resumed on all lines Monday morning, but it was less frequent than normal.

(Photo by Kate Hinds)

Passengers, like Kyle Taylor, who were hoping the same had happened with NJ Transit had no such luck.

Taylor, 49, was in a rush to get to East Orange, N.J. His tenants reported leaks, following the hurricane, and he said he wanted to be "the first responder." He did not check online about the service, but just expected it to be back to normal.

“New York is all about making money, about people,” Taylor fumed. “They should have had it up and running.”

NJ Transit rail service will remain suspended “until further notice” except for the Atlantic City Rail Line, according to its website.

Amtrak passengers were in a similar position, with no trains departing or arriving to Penn Station, a condition that was going to change throughout the day, according to its spokeswoman Christina Leeds. “In addition to the extensive flooding, we also are clearing debris from tracks and restoring power to stations, switches and signals, and overhead power,” she wrote in an email message.

Among those hoping Amtrak would somehow find a way to start running again was Wei Peng, 20, junior at the Bard College, who flew in from Beijing to Philadelphia yesterday. He sat on the floor at Penn Station, listening to the English rock duo The Boy Least Likely To, while waiting.

“Today is the first day of class,” Peng said. “I'm gonna miss it.”

A bit farther uptown, at Grand Central, Helena DaSilva, 18, a senior at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in Connecticut, looked despondent as she phoned her mother from Grand Central.

"I’m stuck in New York.”

DaSilva said she thought the Metro-North Railroad would be working and that she would have no problem arriving on time for her 1 p.m. meeting with her counselor, but had to ask her mother to postpone it.

According to Marjorie Anders, spokeswoman for the MTA, the Metro-North Railroad resumed service only on the Lower Hudson and Lower Harlem lines at 2 p.m.on Monday. The MTA said that Metro-North’s Hudson & New Haven Main Lines resumed service at 4pm, but on a Sunday schedule.

DaSilva looked disappointed. “The city that never sleeps looks pretty sleepy right now,” she said.

(Photo by Beth Fertig/WNYC)