By Olivia Scheck and Ben Fractenberg
MANHATTAN — Southbound N/R service returned to Downtown’s Cortlandt Street subway station Tuesday, after years of closures that began on 9/11.
The station, which has entrances directly across from the World Trade Center site, was shut down after being damaged in the September 11 attacks.
"It's an important event in the revitalization and the reconstruction of lower Manhattan and putting behind us all the terrible damage that the terrorists did on that fateful day," said U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the stop.
Service resumed the following year, but was stopped again in 2005 so that work could be done on the Dey Street Passageway, which will connect it to the still progressing Fulton Street Transit Center.
Elected officials, including Nadler, State Aseembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Sen. Daniel Squadron and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, presided over the 3 p.m. ribbon-cutting to celebrate the station’s reopening.
"What's really exciting about this is that the station is just one part of what will be the spectacular new Fulton Street Transit Center," said MTA Chairman Jay Walder at the ceremony. "It will literally be the crossroads of our transit center, providing connection to 11 subway lines and weaving lower Manhattan together."
Regular southbound service will began following the ceremony, an MTA spokeswoman said.
