Daily News from New York, New York • 996

MIT5U TASUUkWA DAILY NEWS There are signs of winter in the air at last as flakes swirl in Central Park and a young New Yorker gets the feel of sledding yesterday. There hasn't been much of that going on here the last couple of years. First snowfall of the millennium brought out sleds, and it is expected they'll be with us for a wintry weekend. toed Data; rodta Midi Service on the line will be suspended for one month, beginning next Ttack work will shut Eighth Ave. line Friday.

Here are the most significant changes: BROOKLYN trains will replace trains. MANHATTAN i trains wifl make train stops at the Chambers St. and Fulton St. stations. trains win not stop at the World Trade Center.

A trains win make local stops at the 155th St. and 163rd St. stations. Service on the line, which makes the same stops as the between 145th St. and Columbus Circle, will increase during rush hour.

Vicki Curtin, 30, boarding a train to 86th St. "It will be a pain.1 The changes are triggered by a need to replace train tracks at the World Trade Center, said Larry Gould, the Transit Authority's director of operations analysis. The work will make it impossible to turn the trains around and send them north, so they will be sent into Brooklyn. There aren't enough tracks and subway cars to run the extra service into Brooklyn and maintain the current level of service in Manhattan, officials said. Something on the Eighth Ave.

line has to give, and the line makes sense because it carries the fewest riders. Transit Authority spokesman Al O'Leary said. The line, a workhorse that rumbles into Manhattan from the busy Queens Blvd. corridor, has an average weekday ridership of 370,000. The train average is 140,000, and the A train average is 450,000.

"It's the lesser of two evils," O'Leary said. With Anu Manchikanti By PETE DO NO HUE OAiU NCS SWT WRITER More than 100,000 straphangers who ride the line soon will be seeing red in place of their usual subway trains. train service will be shut down beginning next Friday for track replacement beneath the World Trade Center that could throw much of the Eighth Ave. line into chaos. The month-long project also will shut the trade center's train terminal.

Some riders will have to use alternate lines and make additional transfers; others will have to walk extra blocks to their destinations. "This has the potential to affect thousands upon thousands of people," said Andrew Albert, chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council. "I don't think it will be a nightmare, but it will be a real inconvenience. People will be very confused." The Transit Authority is launching a public education campaign to minimize the chaos, and it will add or replace service at most sta tions served by the line. But transit advocates said riders, especially along Central Park West and St.

Nicholas could end up waiting longer for trains. Riders of the A line traveling north of 72nd St. will see their express train go local at 9 p.m., at least two hours earlier than normal, officials said. The Transit Authority's plans, which are being posted in stations across the city and on the Internet, include having A trains making additional local stops; running extra trains during rush hours, and having trains make train stops south of Canal St. and in Brooklyn.

There will be some gaps. Downtown trains, for example, will not stop at 50th St. and Eighth forcing riders to transfer to other lines and get off blocks away. Some train riders at the station last night took the news in stride, saying they would manage. A few, however, were alarmed.

"1 don't know what I'm going to do," said Cops alter SO car-grab policy Former exec, porn queen indicted A fallen Wall Street star and his Canadian pomo queen ex-girlfriend were indicted yesterday in Manhattan on insider-trading charges. James McDermott, a frequent expert on TV financial shows, allegedly fed insider tips to Kathryn Gannon, known as Marylin Star in her hard-core sex She, in turn, gave the tips to Anthony Pomponio, who is identified as a New Jersey businessman, prosecutors said. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White filed a criminal complaint against the three last month, but yesterday a grand jury ratcheted up the pressure by returning an indictment. The charges could net them up to 10 years in jail and fines of $250,000.

Gannon allegedly is hiding out in Canada, but sources say she has been trying to negotiate a plea deal. Greg B. Smith "What we're trying to do is when we have somebody who hasn't injured anybody, who does not have an excessive amount of alcohol, is not an egregious case, who appears to be interested in solving their problems, then we would look to give them a chance to mitigate their violation and return the car," Safir said. Cops have seized 1,532 cars seize the cars of allegedly drunken drivers. Motorists caught driving drunk are eligible to get their cars back if they have no significant prior history of driving while intoxicated, have a blood-alcohol level lower than 0.20 and do not cause damage or injuries, he said.

But they first have to complete an alcohol treatment program ind pay a $1,000 fee. By MIKE CLAFFEY DMLt NEVUS SIVF WRITER The Police Department has quietly modified its DWI car seizure program to allow hundreds of people a chance to get their vehicles back, the department disclosed yesterday. Police Commissioner Howard Safir and other officials insisted the change, made in November, is not a weakening of the controversial policy in which cops since rhe policy "wenTlnrrr effect last February..