Nearly 17 years to the day that it was buried under debris, the World Trade Center stop on the New York City Subway reopened on Sunday.

Officially called WTC Cortlandt, the station's return service marks an important milestone as one of the last major rebuilding projects undertaken after the devastation of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

New Yorkers cheered as the number 1 line roared through the station for the first time in nearly two decades. However, the $181.8 million (157.4 million euros) project has been criticized not only for its decadence, but for the sheer amount of time it took to rebuild and reopen.

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NYC transit 'dysfunction' to blame for delay

Even as the new One World Trade Center complex began to take shape on top of it, trains continued to bypass the Cortlandt Street stop. Indeed, by the time the new skyscraper opened in 2014, construction had not even begun on the station — and wouldn't for another year.

According to The New York Times, the station was a victim of the "dysfunction" among the city's transit authorities.

"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway system, only began to build the new station in 2015 after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey handed over control of the site after finishing other parts of the area," the newspaper said.

The story of the WTC Cortlandt echoes the development of the new World Trade Center itself, which underwent years of design, budget, and security disputes before construction even began.