Seven months after Sandy, Rockaway residents get their subway back

Jose Hernandez and his wife, Carry, were riding on a New York City subway car on Thursday when the news came through the speakers: The final stop would be Far Rockaway, Queens. They stood up and cheered.

"We haven't seen this in a long time," said Carry Hernandez.

The longtime residents of the Rockaways, home to Rockaway Beach, were riding one of the first A trains to resume service seven months after Superstorm Sandy slammed the area, one of the hardest hit by its high winds and flooding.

The 3.5-mile stretch along the Rockaway Flats saw tracks washed out and miles of signal, power and communication wires destroyed. Two stations, Broad Channel and Rockaway Park Beach, had been completely flooded. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, about 35,000 daily customers were left without a direct rail link to Manhattan.

When the flooding had subsided, the MTA launched what became a seven-month effort to rebuild the damaged transportation system.

"This was an all-out, seven-month, day-and-night effort to rebuild three-and-a-half miles of the A train service coming across Jamaica Bay and into what we call the flats of the Rockaways," MTA Interim Executive Director Tom Prendergast told NY1 News.

In the meantime, however, the mess had left residents dependent on limited service and unreliable bus and train shuttles as they struggled to regain some sense of normalcy in their lives.

"When Sandy happened, it just threw everybody for a loop," said Jose. His 15- to 20-minute ride to work, he said, "would take maybe two hours. ... Everyday you'd have a fight on the way over here. Everybody's trying to find a seat."

As the train passed over the water to Broad Channel Station, the Jose and Carry stood up again and clapped. At the stop, the platform was crowded with locals, teenage beachgoers and a few photographers. Police officers hovered in the background.

The crowds cheered as an A train and an S shuttle train?which also resumed service on Thursday?headed into the station, one after the other.

One MTA officer described the scene as "just like old times, except for the photographers."

He added, "The only thing that's different is that all the facilities in these stations are new. They're beautiful now."

By early afternoon at Broad Channel, the crowds and the cheers had subsided. The trains began to arrive with greater regularity, and the only people on the platform besides bored passengers were a handful of police officers and station employees.

"The transformation is unbelievable," said one of the workers." You should have seen all this seven months ago. Just take a look at it. They've done an incredible job."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/seven-months-sandy-rockaway-residents-subway-back-205953234.html

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