Beach 90 St-Holland (A,S-Rockaway Park Shuttle)

Beach 90 St-Holland is the typical Rockaway Line Station on its unique concrete elevated structure. The platforms are extra long, designed to fit ten 85-foot LIRR trains. There are two side platforms each with two staircases down to a large enclosed by doors mezzanine area station house, where the token booth is adjacent to the turnstiles, and there are benches and electric heaters to keep people warm in winter as they wait for the train. The exits have four staircases, two down to each side of Rockaway Freeway just west of Beach 90 Street.

In terms of ridership, as of 2008 the station has the best out of any of the Rockaway Park Shuttle Stations, it's still pretty poor, ranking 410 out of 422 in the entire subway system, $19.3 million is being spent on 900 daily customers (Source).

Rebuilding: The station was completely rebuilt between 2009 and 2011 along with every other elevated stop on in the Rockaways. The signs for funding the rebuilding say 'improvements for 200 daily customers' (an extremely low number since the station has the lowest ridership in the subway system). This rebuilding included replacing the original windscreens with green and cream full-height ones and modern full-height mesh windscreens at exposed ends of the platforms. To allow this rebuilding to occur Manhattan-bound trains skipped the stop from September 14, 2009 to January 25, 2010 and Rockaway Park-bound trains skipped from September 7, 2010 to December 22, 2010.

The Western Terminus for the H train during Superstorm Sandy: After the line across Jamaica Bay was heavily destroyed during Superstorm Sandy. The station is currently playing an unusal roll as the terminus of H shuttle trains running from here via the single-track Hammells Wye to Far Rockaway where passengers can transfer to special Shuttle Buses that run via Nassau County to Howard Beach. Most passengers trying to get to Manhattan simply take the Q52 or Q53 bus routes, the more direct routing svia the Cross Bay Bridge instead of the shuttle train to the Shuttle bus route at Far Rockaway. There are still a decent number of riders on the H train, mainly using it for intra-penninsula travel. The station is an odd terminus with trains only stopping on the Rockaway Parkway-bound platform. The Manhattan-bound platform is taped off and closed.
Photos 1-10: December 29, 2008; 11-19: November 30, 2012; 20-30: January 29, 2013; 31-40: May 30, 2013; 41-62: September 13, 2012

Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

Approaching the Beach 90 St-Holland Station from street level. The older looking windscreens that old up the platform's canopies are clearly visible in this picture.

A closed entrance staircase into the Beach 90 St-Holland Station.

A side view of the station platform on the elevated structure at Beach 90 St-Holland.

Looking underneath the concrete elevated structure with its relatively delicate curves with the station house visible underneath the el at Beach 90 St-Holland Station.

The wooden green doors that lead into the station house after walking up the staircase (all of which have a unique design to the Rockaways) to Beach 90 St-Holland.

Looking down the platform at Beach 90 St-Holland. The stop markers for the trains are visible.

A four car Rockaway Park-bound Shuttle train of R44s enters Beach 90 St-Holland .

The strip map of A/S train service at Beach 90 St-Holland is quite outdated (at least in terms of subway transfers) and looks to be from about the mid-90s. It still shows the Rockaway Park Shuttle as Blue and the diamond A.

A R44 Rockaway Park-bound shuttle train continues to enter Beach 90 St-Holland. The two staircases down to the station's mezzanine are also visible in this photo, with there skeletal fences prohibiting people from falling down them.