A Train Service Returns to Rockaway Beach

By Matthew Hampton and Amy Sara Clark

Brooklyn surfers rejoice, subway service has returned to NYC's best waves.

The MTA will restore A train and shuttle service to the Rockaways Thursday afternoon, seven months after Sandy knocked out trains over Jamaica Bay.

The transit giant announced its plan to reopen service to the Rockaways Wednesday afternoon, starting with a special first train from Howard Beach to Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street Station at 10:30 a.m. 

The MTA will kick off the resumed service with a kind of celebration, running antique cars from the 1930's over the newly-opened train lines for the first run of 2013. 

The first train open to the public will leave Howard Beach at Noon, according to the MTA. 

Rockaway residents have been forced to depend on other services to get to and from the peninsula since the storm, including a ferry that the city has operated since November. 

Then-MTA Chair Joe Lhota said after the storm that the recovery work necessary on the Jamaica Bay trestle would take months to complete. In the mean time, the MTA trucked train cars onto the peninsula to create a self-contained train service to help area residents move around locally. 

For Brooklynites along the Q line, Brighton Beach is still the quickest NYC beach to get to, but for those who crave huge waves, then taking the A train to Rockaway is jut the ticket.