The New York City subway had its first planned overnight shutdown in the system’s 115-year history. A team of our reporters and photographers stayed up all night to document what happened. nyti.ms/3b5bb2R
No other American city relies as much on public transit as New York City, a hot spot for the coronavirus. The subway will close daily from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. for the foreseeable future to provide more time to thoroughly disinfect trains, stations and equipment. 
Across New York City, the complicated task of shutting down the subway played out in nearly every station
Police officers and social workers attempted to coax homeless people off trains and direct them to shelters during New York’s subway shutdown. “You can’t do this to me,” one man said. “I want to get back on the train.”
Often confused early-morning commuters tried to find other ways of getting to work, hopping on buses instead while the subway was closed. “I have to catch anything I can,” said one man who was traveling from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to Staten Island. “I want to work.”
With the subways empty of passengers, crews of cleaners attempted to thoroughly disinfect trains and stations before the system reopened at 5 a.m.
The nightly shutdown reflects the challenge officials face in ensuring that New York’s subway is safe enough to lure back riders, even as the system reels from a deadly outbreak that has ravaged the city and crippled its public transit network nyti.ms/3b5bb2R
