Free H Train Service Operating In Hard-Hit Rockaways
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- For the first time since Superstorm Sandy, subway service is back up and running in the Rockaways.
Tracks for the A train that runs from Howard Beach to the Rockaways were almost completely destroyed in the storm.
1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck reports
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Tracks were snapped in some places, ripped from the ground and covered by debris in others, making transit impossible and leaving the hard-hit Rockaways isolated and cut off.
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But now in an effort to put Sandy in the past and get people moving again, the MTA is resurrecting the long-shuttered H subway line as work continues on the damaged tracks.
MTA crews loaded 20 subway cars onto flatbed trucks and drove them to the Rockaways in a four night operation and loaded them onto the old H tracks.
The free H train service started at 4 a.m. Tuesday and will run daily from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. every 15 minutes between the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue station and the Beach 90-Holland station.
From there, commuters can transfer to a free shuttle bus which loops around JFK and connects them to the A train at the Howard Beach station.
Tuesday morning, many residents were happy to see the H train pulling into the station.
"It's a historic thing," one man said.
"It's beautiful," said another resident. "I'm very, very grateful."
From November 26, 1967 through September 10, 1972, the Rockaways Shuttle to/from Euclid Avenue and Far Rockaway or Rockaway Park was the "HH Train." The Shuttle was phased out in 1972 in deference to through-routing of A and E Trains. Then the Shuttle returned as the CC Train in 1976.
From the late 70s to 1985 it was again named the HH, and renamed the H Train on May 5, 1985 when double letters were eliminated. In 1994, the H was renamed the S Shuttle and continued as such between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park (the A Train served Far Rockaway, alternating terminals with Lefferts Blvd.).
Even after the H designation disappeared from public timetables and maps in 1994, it was still used internally for NYC Transit employees for route and car assignments right up to Sandy.
The new H is running over a seldom-used piece of track, called "Hammels Wye," that connects the Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway branches. Prior to now, it was used only for equipment moves and very rare "round-robin service" during construction that took a single train set from Broad Channel to Rockaway Park to Far Rockaway and back to Broad Channel.
There is no timetable for restoring A train service, but officials say it is expected to take several months.
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