The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Twitter that some subway lines were delayed because of snow-related switch and signal problems.

At 6 p.m., Marlyne Page, an executive assistant who works in Midtown, had already been in line for an hour but was still a block away from the entrance to the bus terminal and the bus to Passaic. “And this isn’t even a real storm,” she said. “Someone didn’t plan.”

She was wet, cold and quietly furious, but exuding calm. “I’m not going to explode, because what would be the point?“ she said. “Unless someone cuts in front of me.”

Many commuters wondered how a minor snowfall that came as no surprise could disrupt the transportation network in the nation’s biggest metropolitan area. Drivers complained that they had not seen any plows or salt trucks. Some complained of being stuck for hours on the roads.

The Bayonne Bridge was closed in both directions for more than an hour.



“We had several vehicles that had difficulty getting up the incline,” said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority. “We had to do heavy duty salting and sanding to get it safe.”

The incline of the bridge was raised two years ago to allow for bigger container ships to pass under.

In a tweet, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that plows and salt spreaders would be out all night to clear roads before the morning commute. “First storm of the year hit hard and right at rush hour, downing trees and causing delays,” he wrote.