While the agreement ends the strike, it does not settle the underlying contract dispute, which means the city could be hit with another walkout if negotiations fail.

Full Coverage: NYC Transit Strike on MassTransitMag.com

The breakthrough was announced just minutes before Toussaint and two of his top deputies were due in a Brooklyn courtroom to answer criminal contempt charges for continuing the strike. On Wednesday, the judge warned he might throw them in jail.

Earlier this week, the judge, State Justice Theodore Jones, fined the union $1 million (euro850,000) a day for striking. And under the state no-strike law, the rank-and-file members were automatically docked two days' pay for each day they stayed off the job.

The walkout sent millions of commuters from the city and its suburbs scrambling to find other ways to get to work, and inflicted a heavy toll on the city's economy in the week before Christmas, when New York is usually packed with tourists and holiday shoppers.

The bitterness was captured in tabloid headlines. The New York Post screamed: "Jail 'em!" in front of a composite image of Toussaint behind bars.

"I think it was all for nothing," said commuter Lauren Caramico, 22, of Brooklyn. "Now the poor people of the TWU are out six days' pay, and nothing gained."