The Rockaway Beach Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York City, United States. The line left the Main Line at Whitepot Junction in Rego Park heading south via Ozone Park and across Jamaica Bay to Hammels in the Rockaways, turning west there to a terminal at Rockaway Park. Along the way it connected with the Montauk Branch near Glendale, the Atlantic Branch near Woodhaven, and the Far Rockaway Branch at Hammels.
After a 1950 fire, the Jamaica Bay bridge was closed and the line south of Ozone Park sold to the city, which rehabilitated the portion south of Liberty Avenue and connected it to the New York City Subway system as the IND Rockaway Line. The portion north of the subway connection was closed in 1962, and two proposals exist for the reuse of the line.
Operations
Early history
The New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad was incorporated on March 21, 1877Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Report: New York and Rockaway Beach and organized on March 24 to build a narrow gauge line from Greenpoint, Brooklyn (connecting with the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway) via Cypress Hills and Woodhaven to Rockaway Beach. , June 2006 Edition This route was created in order to cut an hour off of travel times to the Rockaways. The new route would take 30 minutes, while the existing route to the Rockaway via the South Side Railroad would take an hour and a half. The plans were later changed (on March 13, 1878 , June 2006 Edition) to build a line from Hunter's Point rather than Greenpoint.
An agreement was made with the Long Island Rail Road in 1880 to operate over its Montauk Division to Bushwick and Hunter's Point (via trackage rights from Glendale Junction) and Atlantic Division to Flatbush Avenue (carried by LIRR locomotives from Woodhaven Junction). In order to support the extra traffic, the LIRR agreed to double-track the Montauk Division west of Richmond Hill and the Atlantic Division west of Woodhaven Junction.
After a delay caused by financial problems, the line opened on August 26, 1880, and the LIRR stopped running trains from its New York terminals to Rockaway Beach via Valley Stream and its Far Rockaway Branch. It continued to operate through trains to Far Rockaway, as well as trains between Long Beach and Rockaway Beach.
The company went bankrupt and was sold under foreclosure on July 30, 1887, to Austin Corbin, owner of the LIRR, who reorganized it as the New York and Rockaway Beach Railway (NY&RB) on August 19, 1887, and transferred the property on September 1, 1887. The old Far Rockaway Branch west of Arverne was soon connected to the NY&RB at Hammels,Peter Ross, A History of Long Island From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, History of the Long Island Railroad, 1903 and was abandoned west of the new connection. The NY&RB began operating trains to Far Rockaway over this connection.
From 1898 to 1917, the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad (later Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company) operated trains from Williamsburg (later Lower Manhattan) to Rockaway Beach (at the western part of the Rockaway Peninsula), using a connection to the Atlantic Avenue Division at Chestnut Street Junction (in present-day East New York) and the Rockaway Beach Division south of Woodhaven Junction. , Edition of June 30, 2003
The NY&RB was operated independently until July 1, 1904, when the LIRR leased it as the Rockaway Beach Division. , March 2005 Edition The line south of Woodhaven Junction was part of the LIRR's first electrification, along with the Atlantic Avenue Division west to Atlantic Terminal, with electric passenger service beginning July 26, 1905. Steam trains continued to serve Rockaway Park from Long Island City until June 16, 1910, when the electrified Glendale Cut-off opened, extending the line north from Glendale on the Montauk Division to White Pot Junction at Rego Park on the Main Line. , March 2005 Edition
This extension also included another connecting track from the Montauk Branch west of Union Turnpike at Forest Park to Parkside Station. At the same time, the Rockaway Beach Division was electrified north of Woodhaven Junction, and the Main Line was electrified west of Rego Park (and into Penn Station when the East River Tunnels opened on September 8, 1910). , March 2005 Edition The New York and Rockaway Beach Railway was merged into the LIRR on June 30, 1922. , June 2004 Edition
In 1939, a project to eliminate grade crossings was begun on the Rockaway Peninsula by elevating the line there, and completing plans that had existed since 1901. The elevated structure was completed to Hammels in 1941 and between Hammels and Far Rockaway in 1942.
The June 1947 weekday schedule shows 68 trains crossing Jamaica Bay north to south: 28 trains to Rockaway Park from Penn Station and 14 from Brooklyn five trains to Far Rockaway from Penn and one from Brooklyn two to Jamaica from Penn and one from Brooklyn 11 to Penn from Penn, and one from Brooklyn to Penn two to Brooklyn from Penn and three from Brooklyn to Brooklyn
Many trains had quick connections at the Ozone Park station.
Final years
A fire on the trestle across Jamaica Bay between The Raunt and Broad Channel stations on May 7, 1950, cut service on the middle section of the line. This was among around 30 fires on the line since 1942. , December 2004 Edition The LIRR continued to operate over the line with two services: one to Rockaway Park west of Hammels via the Far Rockaway Branch through Nassau County, and the other to Hamilton Beach via the Main Line's connection to the Rockaway Branch through Whitepot Junction. The Jamaica Bay trestle meanwhile remained out of service.
The LIRR, then on the verge of bankruptcy, saw the Rockaway Beach Branch south of Ozone Park as a liability and did not wish to spend the huge sum need to repair it, and sought to either sell or abandon it. The city of New York, however, saw great potential in extending subway service over Jamaica Bay and purchased the line on June 11, 1952, for $8,500,000, equal to $ today.
All stations south of Ozone Park were taken out of service on June 27, 1955, and no trains ran on the line south of Ozone Park during the winter of 1955–1956 to allow the New York City Transit Authority to rebuild the line for subway operations. After an extensive rebuild of all trestles and converting the line for transit operations, which included a connection to the IND Fulton Street Line at Liberty Avenue via the former Fulton Street elevated line, the city began operating it as the IND Rockaway Line on June 26, 1956, to great fanfare. , December 2004 Edition
The line's connection with the Atlantic Branch at Woodhaven Junction, consisting of an interlocking, tunnel portal and incline that rose to meet the elevated Rockaway Branch, was closed and removed in October 1955. This connection had primarily been used to allow trains from Brooklyn to reach Aqueduct Racetrack. The remains of the interlocking can still be seen in the Atlantic Avenue tunnel, while the incline is now used by Logan School Bus Company, who parks their bus fleet along the incline.
LIRR service continued on the remaining portion of the Rockaway Beach Branch between Rego Park and Ozone Park, under a lease from the New York City Transit Authority. Ridership sharply declined, however, and the line and its stations began to deteriorate due to vandalism and lack of maintenance.
On May 9, 1958, the New York Public Service Commission approved the LIRR's application to discontinue facilities at the five stations on the line, except for the platforms and suitable shelters. Two platforms would have to be preserved at Ozone Park, while one platform would have to be preserved at the other stations. At this point, just four daily weekday trains had operated on the branch, two Ozone Park-bound and two Penn Station-bound. The LIRR's application to eliminate two of these four trains was rejected. It had sought to eliminate the train leaving Ozone Park at 8:41 AM, which had an average of 92 riders a day, and the train leaving Penn Station at 7:01 PM, which had an average of 62 daily riders.
No connection with the parallel IND Rockaway Line was made in Ozone Park, further hurting any potential ridership growth. The LIRR, realizing that the truncated operation was better served by the subway, quietly ceased service on June 8, 1962, following approval from the New York Public Service commission. At the time, the Rockaway Beach Branch was the LIRR's only passenger-service branch, aside from the City Zone Terminals (Penn Station, Atlantic Terminal, and Long Island City), that ran entirely within the New York City limits.
Legacy and planned restoration
The city never filed to abandon the isolated section of double trackage between Rego Park and Ozone Park, due to the intended connection to the IND Queens Boulevard Line subway. This had been proposed under the IND Second System and later by Robert Moses, with an existing provision at the 63rd Drive subway station for a future connection to Whitepot Junction. An additional plan proposed a connection to the BMT Jamaica Line around the Brooklyn Manor station. However, in October 1955, shortly after LIRR service on the Queens portion of the Far Rockaway Branch ended, it was decided to terminate subway service at Liberty Avenue, with only the connection to the Fulton Street El completed.
The right-of-way was sold to the City of New York and is now in most sections administered by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services ("DCAS"), except for a section in Forest Park that has been mapped as parkland. The line remains officially out of service and is known by locals as "the forgotten spur", a name which dates back to the mid-1950s when the subway plans for the spur were dropped.
Much of the original infrastructure has either been removed, damaged, rotted or undermined, though some rails, wooden ties, electrical towers and even de-electrified third rails can still be found in some sections, with much of it dating from 1908 or earlier, when the line was originally electrified. The failure to reactivate the northern portion of the line had been attributed to the potential high costs of connecting it to the Queens Boulevard Line, and capacity issues on the line which persist today, making the Fulton line connection more feasible. There are proposals for rail service and a rail trail on this right-of-way. One proposal juxtaposes both plans.
The Rockaway Beach Branch is a regular haunt for hikers and urban explorers who have documented the abandoned stations along this route. The right-of-way can easily be seen, especially along the abandoned elevated embankment in Woodhaven and Ozone Park. The line is owned by the City of New York, with certain areas around the former junction with the Montauk Branch that have been redeveloped for interim use, including the Logan Bus Company lot.
20th century plans Since service ended in 1962, there have been repeated talks of restoring the line to active passenger service. The first of these proposals was a 1963 proposal that would have reactivated the line by connecting it to the IND Queens Boulevard Line.