hardest repair work imaginable, six straight months with workers going seven days a week have brought the a-train back. and now you have to meet this kid. this is rory. he is 5 years old. and rory loves trains! he loves trains so much, he can give fred eaglesmith a run for his money. today, with the big announcement, rory and his mom rushed to the rockaways to catch the last h-train ever. rockaway, here we come, right? and with the last h-train gone, they brought in a vintage train today for the ceremonial first restored a-train trip across. and, of course, all the city dignitaries piled in. but the track workers were there too and clapped and cheered, still wearing their orange safety vests and hard hats. they had just finished rebuilding three-and-a-half miles of track and rewiring everything and totally overhauling and repairing the two stations that had flooded completely. and then here comes the train. the new a-train today. this was shot today. the new a-train comes with a seawal
best new thing in the world. ready? of the 8 million people jammed into new york city, 150,000 of them, give or take, live here on that peninsula that is circled in red there. the peninsula at the city s far southern edge. that peninsula is called the rockaways, an 11-mile long atlantic ocean beach peninsula that is part of new york city. and since peninsulas by definition jut out into water and are surrounded on water by three sides, lots of peninsulas are pretty hard to reach. and the rockaways are no exception. in the 1950s in the rockaways, they celebrated and the city finally, finally extended a subway line out there. rockaway, here we come. that subway line, the a-train, is the connection for the rockaways to the rest of the world. and it is the longest subway line in this big, big, big city. the part of that subway trip that goes across jamaica bay, just that one part, takes so long that new york city pigeons
still lining up, actually, for the replacement shuttle buses from the old h line jerry-rigged thing. some of those people told us today that they will miss the weird make shift system, because it had a side effect of giving people a three shuttle bus and train around the rockaways. but a lot of other folks seemed awfully glad their train was back. the a-train is back. and the rockaways are back. but, of course, when places come back, they are never exactly the same. like any place that is rebuilding, whether it s new orleans or moore, oklahoma, the rockaways now have to wrestle with what kind of place they want to rebuild themselves into. almost $2 billion in federal disaster relief is about to come through new york city. some of it for repairs, but some of it to make stronger, more resilient places that can handle extreme weather, since we seem to have more of that now. so they have to decide, do they want more ferry service in the rockaways, enough to make that a priority, do they wa
even bigger than sandy from wrecking the tracks again. when they threw open the subway turnstiles today, people were still lining up, actually, for the replacement shuttle buses from the old h line jerry-rigged thing. some of those people told us today that they will miss the weird make shift system, because it had a side effect of giving people a three shuttle bus and train around the rockaways. but a lot of other folks seemed awfully glad their train was back. the a-train is back. and the rockaways are back. but, of course, when places come back, they are never exactly the same. like any place that is rebuilding, whether it s new orleans or moore, oklahoma, the rockaways now have to wrestle with what kind of place they want to rebuild themselves into. almost $2 billion in federal disaster relief is about to come through new york city. some of it for repairs, but some of it to make stronger, more resilient places that can handle extreme weather, since we seem to have more of that now.
rockaways, enough to make that a priority, do they want to focus on housing, housing that more people can afford? city councilman donovan richards told us this week, he talked to us about it. he said folks in the rockaways have not always believed that government cared about them. but councilman richardson told us this. at the end of the day, because of the storm, there is light, there is hope that we can change some things. however, that plays out. whatever choices the rockaways are able to make, they have got their train again. it is running, again, full service, as of noon today. but for the workers who should, frankly, go celebrate all night, and then get cranking on the rest of the safety upgrades after that, and for the lifeguard standing guard with ruined houses behind them, and for the nice lady who can now go visit her mom without the trip taking all day, she told us today, and for rory, who loves trains so much, that they let him have the actual official notice that the a-tra