Commuters lined up at Penn Station to board uptown trains at 6 a.m. Technology worker Ronnie Abraham was on one of them, hoping to get home to Harlem, a trip that is 20 minutes by train and 2 1/2 hours by bus.

"It's the lifeline of the city," Abraham said. "It can't get much better than this."

Ray Dunn, a paramedic, was trying to get work in the Bronx for the first time since the storm barreled up the East Coast, killing more than 70 people, devastating coastal communities and leaving millions without power from New Jersey to the West Virginia mountains.

"There's no way to get to work unless you drive," said Dunn, who doesn't own a car.

After reopening its airports, theaters and stock exchange, city officials hoped the subways would ease the gridlock that had paralyzed the city, forcing cars and pedestrians to inch through crowded streets without working stoplights. But television footage Thursday showed heavy traffic crawling into Manhattan, as police turned away cars that carried fewer than three people - a rule meant to ease the congestion that paralyzed the city earlier this week.

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