The city and state of New York stepped up their pressure on striking transit workers Wednesday in hopes of forcing them back to work, and a judge said sending union leaders to jail was a "distinct possibility."

State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones, who is hearing several legal issues related to the strike, directed attorneys from the Transport Workers Union to bring president Roger Toussaint and other top officials before the court Thursday to answer to a criminal contempt charge.

He said he may sentence the union leaders to jail for refusing to end the strike, calling such a scenario a "distinct possibility."

Union lawyer Arthur Schwartz said Toussaint and the other officials are in negotiations with mediators and that hauling them into court could halt the talks.

The possibility of jail time for union leaders was one of several developments Wednesday as millions of New Yorkers trudged to work in another bone-chilling commute without subways and buses. Mayor Michael Bloomberg repeatedly lashed out at the union during a news conference at City Hall.

"It needs to end, and it needs to end right now," Bloomberg said. For a second straight day, the mayor ripped what he called an "intolerable, unfortunate and unnecessary" strike. And he questioned how union leaders could claim their walkout was done to benefit the city's working class.

"Working people are the ones who are being hurt," Bloomberg said. "The busboy is getting hurt, the garment industry worker is getting hurt, the owners of mom and pop businesses ... The ones getting hurt the most are the ones who can least afford it. If they don't get paid, they don't eat."

The strike was responsible for a 40 percent decline in business at restaurants, an 80 percent decline in visitors at museums, and a 90 percent decline in customers at the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn, the mayor said.

Michael A. Cardozo, New York City's corporation counsel, asked the judge to issue an order directing union members to return to work.

If the order is granted, Cardozo said, the city could ask for $25,000-a-day fines per worker — a punishment that goes beyond the docked-pay penalty that workers already are experiencing for the illegal strike.

"We're doing everything possible to make the union obey the law," he said, adding that union members need to "realize the economic consequences of their actions."

The fines would be at the discretion of the judge, and most likely would range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.

On the first day of winter, New Yorkers were out before sunrise, hoping to avoid the long lines and crushing crowds that formed at commuter rail stations during rush hour Tuesday. Outside Penn Station, several taxis had lined up by 7 a.m. to pick up passengers hoping to beat the rush. A trip across Manhattan took about 90 minutes.

"A nightmare, disorganized, especially going home," Aleksandra Radakovic said Wednesday morning in describing her commute.

The White House also spoke out on the strike Wednesday, saying federal mediators have offered to help end the dispute. "It is unfortunate. We hope that the two sides can resolve their differences so that the people in New York can get to where they need to go," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

On Tuesday, Jones imposed a huge fine against the Transport Workers Union — $1 million for each day of the strike; Schwartz said the fine could deplete the union's treasury in the matter of days. The union vowed to immediately appeal.

In addition, the Transport Workers Union's 33,000 members already face the loss of two days pay for every day they are on strike. That means a prolonged strike could quickly eat up any increased pay they would get with a new contract.

On Wednesday, Jones issued another ruling against organized labor. He ordered that two unions representing a fraction of the transit workers be fined $50,000 per day for one of the unions and $75,000 per day for the second union. Together the unions, which are part of the amalgamated Transit Workers Union, represent about 3,000 workers of the MTA union.

Some of the strikers got an early start Wednesday, donning union placards and returning to their picket lines. Bill McRae, a bus driver since 1985, said he thought negotiations should have continued — but he still backed the walkout.

"The union executives called for a strike, and we have to do what we have to do," McRae said on Manhattan's West Side.

Transit officials said about 1,000 transit workers came to work Tuesday, and that they were put to work cleaning and doing paperwork.

As they did on the first day of the strike, throngs of pedestrians, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on Wednesday braced themselves against the 24-degree weather and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. Volunteers awaited them, offering hot chocolate.

Bloomberg urged transit workers to end the strike.

"All the transit workers have to do is listen to their international (union) that's urged them to go back to work, listen to the judge who ordered them back to work, and look at their families and their own economic interests," he said. "They should go back to work. Nobody's above the law, and everyone should obey the law."

The International TWU, the union's parent, had urged the local not to go on strike. Its president, Michael O'Brien, reiterated Tuesday that the striking workers were legally obligated to resume working. The only way to a contract, he said, is "not by strike but continued negotiation."

Police say there have been no strike-related crimes, injuries or arrests with the exception of two minor incidents.

On Tuesday night, a cab driver was arrested on the Upper East Side for allegedly assaulting a woman in his cab after they got into an argument over the fare. She sustained minor injuries. And earlier Tuesday, a police officer was accidentally bumped by a flatbed truck at a checkpoint in Queens.

"The city is functioning, and functioning well considering the severe circumstances," Bloomberg said before ripping into the union.

The TWU "shamefully decided they don't care about the people they work for, and they have no respect for the law," the mayor said.

Isaac Flores, who works at a law firm in midtown, was part of a complicated, four-person car pool to get to work Wednesday morning. "They're too spoiled," Flores said of the transit workers. "They want to retire at age 55. They're making more money than a cop."

Flores traveled in a car pool with Myra Sanoguet, who saw a group of pickets in upper Manhattan as their car drove past.

"We were thinking about running them over just now," Sanoguet said.

In its last offer before negotiations broke down, the MTA had proposed increasing contributions to the pension plan from 2 percent to 6 percent. Union officials said that such a change would be impossible for the union to accept.

"Were it not for the pension piece, we would not be out on strike," Toussaint said in an interview with NY1. "All it needs to do is take its pension proposal off the table."

The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent; the previous proposal included 3 percent raises each year.

The MTA asked the Public Employment Relations Board to formally declare an impasse, the first step toward forcing binding arbitration of the contract, said James Edgar, the board's executive director.

The strike was expected to cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars per day.