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Cell phone service was disabled inside the four tunnels leading into Manhattan after the terrorist bombings in London, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg questioned Monday whether the move “makes the most sense.”

Cell phones have been used to detonate explosives in Madrid and elsewhere.

But cutting off cell service in tunnels beneath the Hudson and East rivers means drivers can’t dial 911 in an emergency.

“I don’t know if it makes the most sense,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “Cell phones provide a measure of comfort.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area transit hubs, bridges and tunnels, decided last Thursday to indefinitely sever power to transmitters providing wireless service in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, spokesman Tony Ciavolella said Monday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which controls the nation’s largest mass transit system, also suspended mobile phone service in the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels after the London attack, but it reinstated service Monday afternoon.

The MTA initially said the service had been shut off at the request of police but later issued a statement saying there had been a miscommunication been the two agencies; an MTA spokesman declined to elaborate.

p. [ Full Story @ CNN.com ]

p(small). Source: CNN.com © 2005 Cable News Network

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