Along with the hugely damaged A train tracks to the Rockaways, the R line has been one of the most stubbornly broken subway lines in Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath, still closed through downtown Manhattan and across the East River a month after the storm. But at 6 a.m. Monday it’s set to open south of 34th Street for the first time since the storm, extending all the way down to Whitehall station, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced. Unfortunately, the Montague tunnel across the East River won’t be open until the end of December, the MTA announced on Saturday, later than the authority’s last estimate of a mid-month opening.
