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Hurricane Irene Causing Major Travel Disruptions

Hurricane Irene is causing major travel disruptions all along the U.S. east coast.

Major airlines including US Airways, American, United, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and AirTran dropped ticket-change fees for passengers scheduled to fly to or from many cities along the East Coast this weekend and early next week. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced Friday night that five airports it operates - John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, Teterboro and Stewart - would be closed as of noon Saturday to all arriving international and domestic flights.

Weekend cruise departures from Northeast ports such as New York may be delayed. More than 20 cruise ships changed their itineraries because of the hurricane. North Carolina ports have closed in Morehead City and Wilmington. Cruise ports in Nassau and Grand Bahama reopened Thursday evening, and ships are anticipated to resume calls on Saturday, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation said.

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority will begin a system-wide shutdown beginning at noon Saturday. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will halt all service beginning at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says New Jersey Transit will suspend all rail, light rail, bus and Access Link Paratransit service in the N.J. Transit system beginning at noon Saturday. That includes trains into and out of the Meadowland Sports Complex, where the New York Jets and New York Giants are set to play a preseason game starting at 2 p.m. Saturday.

North Carolina rail transportation is canceled for Saturday. Limited passenger train travel will resume between Raleigh and Charlotte on Sunday, according to the governor's office.

Amtrak said Friday evening that none of its trains would be operating Sunday and there would be even fewer routes in service Saturday because of the storm. Amtrak's cancellations include service along the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston; the Keystone Corridor between New York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; the Empire Service between New York and Albany, New York; the Vermonter running between Washington and St. Albans, Vermont; the Piedmont Service between Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; Northeast Regional trains in Virginia; and several "long-distance trains."

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