MTA to suspend A train subway service in Rockaways for five months beginning January

Straphangers in the Rockaways will have to rely on buses next year — the MTA plans to shut down subway service on the A line from mid-January until May to repair damage to the elevated tracks dating back to Superstorm Sandy.
The four-month outage would sever the southeastern Queens peninsula’s primary mass transit connection to the rest of the city, as crews worked to repair and replace portions of the elevated line running over Broad Channel and Jamaica Bay.
“This project is literally taking that narrow causeway from Broad Channel back to the mainland of Queens, and redoing the structure of that little narrow causeway and the track,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber said Monday. “You can’t keep service running while you’re taking apart the actual land that it sits on and the track itself.”
“We have no choice but to fix this,” Lieber added. “We have to do this in the interest of giving people in the Rockaways better service.”
The outage will begin on Jan. 17, 2025, and run until May, according to transit officials.
The Rockaway peninsula was decimated by Superstorm Sandy in late 2012. Train service was knocked out for more than half a year before MTA crews were able to restore the lines enough for subways to run.
But officials say lingering damage to the A train’s elevated structures persists — and that a thorough overhaul will help protect the train from future storms.
The work will include the wholesale replacement of the Y-shaped junction known as the Hammels Wye viaduct and repairs to the South Channel Bridge just north of Hammels Wye. It will also include a major shoring up of the four miles of subway tracks over Broad Channel and Jamaica Bay which were rebuilt following Sandy.
During the outage, the Rockaway Shuttle train will run the length of the Rockaways, from the Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St. Station to the Far Rockaway Station. The shuttle will not go to Broad Channel.
In a statement, the MTA official in charge of the project  said the 17-week outage was the quickest way to complete the work.
“Consistent with what has been done in the past for the L train Canarsie Tunnel project and G line modernization work, this next phase of the A train resiliency work has undergone internal and external expert review to weigh alternate delivery and construction methods,” said Deputy Chief Development Officer Mark Roche. “It was determined that [the 17-week outage] is the best option for getting this work done as quickly as possible.”
Asked about the outage at a press briefing Monday, Mayor Adams said he “believes in ferries,” and is looking into running more to make up for the shutdown.
The NYC Ferry service, run privately on behalf of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, currently offers service between Rockaway Park and Wall St.
“I believe in ferries, and I think ferries are a good way to move around, particularly in those remote locations,” Adams said. “We’re looking to see the feasibility of doing that.”
“I don’t think we use our waterways enough, and we want to go to see how we can expand that,” he continued.
MTA chair Lieber said the state transit agency has discussed additional ferries with the city, but that he suspected they wouldn’t be enough.
“History tells us that ferries don’t end up carrying a lot of people in these situations,” Lieber told reporters.
The MTA is planning on running multiple shuttle buses during the outage
The transit big hinted that there may be discounts in the offing for frustrated Rockaway subway riders to take the LIRR from Far Rockaway into Manhattan.
“We are very interested in making the Long Island Rail Road service more available [and] more affordable to people in the Rockaways,” he said. “Stay tuned.”
With Josephine Stratman