Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Address | Mott Avenue & Beach 22nd Street Queens, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Borough | Queens | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | Far Rockaway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 40°36′14″N73°45′20″W / 40.603983°N 73.755426°W /40.603983; -73.755426 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Division | B (IND, formerlyLIRRFar Rockaway Branch)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line | IND Rockaway Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | A  (all times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Structure | Elevated | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 1island platform | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | July 29, 1869; 156 years ago (1869-07-29) (SSRRLI, thenLIRR station)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rebuilt | July 15, 1890; 135 years ago (1890-07-15), January 16, 1958; 68 years ago (1958-01-16) (as a subway station)[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Accessible |  ADA-accessible | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 961,694[4]  12.8% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | 302 out of 423[4] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheFar Rockaway–Mott Avenue station (announced as theFar Rockaway station) is the easternterminal station of theNew York City Subway'sIND Rockaway Line. Originally aLong Island Rail Road station, it is currently the easternmost station in the New York City Subway. It is served by theA train at all times.
As of 2016[update], this station is the busiest subway station on theRockaway peninsula. The original surface station on this site was opened in 1869; the current elevated station began operation as a subway station on January 16, 1958. The station was renovated between 2009 and 2012.
Until 1950 theFar Rockaway Branch of theLong Island Rail Road was part of a loop that traveled along the existing route. The line diverges from the present-dayAtlantic andLong Beach Branches east ofValley Stream station inValley Stream, New York. Eastbound trains continued south then southwest, throughFive Towns and theRockaway Peninsula, and onto a trestle acrossJamaica Bay through Queens where it reconnected with theRockaway Beach Branch; westbound trains did the reverse, using the Rockaway Beach Branch to cross the trestle, go through the Rockaways and Five Towns, and continue northeast then north to join the westbound Atlantic Branch.[5][6]
Far Rockaway station itself was originally built by theFar Rockaway Branch Railroad, a subsidiary of theSouth Side Railroad of Long Island. Construction on the line began in September 1868, and the station was opened on July 29, 1869.[5][6] The station was later converted into a freight house, when a second station was moved from Ocean Point Station (a.k.a.Cedarhurst Station), remodeled, and opened on October 1, 1881. The third depot opened on July 15, 1890, while the second depot was sold and moved to a private location in October 1890. The surface station featured a large plaza and depot, serving horse-drawn carriages, taxis, and surface trolleys.[5][7] TheOcean Electric Railway terminated at the station between 1897 and September 2, 1926, and the station served as the headquarters for the Ocean Electric Railway.[8][9]
The station also served as the terminus of aLong Island Electric Railwaytrolley line leading toJamaica, via New York Avenue (now Guy R. Brewer Boulevard). Following the end of trolley service in November 1933,[10] the depot served buses fromGreen Bus Lines andJamaica Buses;[5][7][10] the former Jamaica trolley route became Jamaica Buses' Route B (now theQ113 andQ114 buses).[10][11] Around noon on April 10, 1942, the surface station was closed, and a new elevated station on the current concrete trestle was opened as part of the Long Island Rail Road's grade crossing elimination project.[12][13] This station had two low-level side platforms.[14]
There were frequent fires and maintenance problems on the Jamaica Bay viaduct. The most notorious of these problems was a fire in May 1950 betweenThe Raunt andBroad Channel Stations.[15] After this fire, the LIRR abandoned the Jamaica Bay viaduct and the Queens portion of the Rockaway Beach/Far Rockaway route. On June 11, 1952, the city acquired all trackage west of Mott Avenue, incorporating it as part of theIND Rockaway Line.[16] Service provided by the A train over the line began in June 1956, with the full western spur toRockaway Park operational.[15] While the remainder of the line operated, withBeach 25th Street–Wavecrest serving as the eastern spur terminal,[15] a new Far Rockaway subway station was constructed, opening on January 16, 1958.[17][18][19][20]
The Far Rockaway LIRR station was moved to agrade-level station at Nameoke Street on February 21, 1958—two blocks from the original station and three blocks from the subway station—becoming the terminus of the Far Rockaway branch.[5][14][21][22] The original site of the LIRR's elevated station and the bus depot, located on the northeast side of Mott Avenue, were replaced with a shopping center and parking lot,[5][21][22][23] which began construction in 1960.[24] The Far Rockaway Shopping Center, as it was called, started undergoing redevelopment in 2017 as part of the Far Rockaway rezoning; it was proposed to replace the shopping center with affordable housing.[25][26]
In 1981, the MTA listed the Mott Avenue station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system, despite the fact that the station had become part of the subway system just two decades earlier.[27] From 2009 to 2012, this and eight other stations were renovated for $117 million. At Far Rockaway, the 1950s design of the station house was replaced with metallic facades and a dome enclosure, and upgrading several features including staircases and employee areas. Elevators from the station house to the platforms were added, as were yellow tactile warning strips on the platform edges, making the stationADA-accessible. A glass artwork titledRespite was installed as part of the MTA'sArts for Transit program. The renovated station was unveiled on May 11, 2012.[17][28][29] The MTA announced in 2025 that a customer service center would open at the station.[30][31]
The segment of the line between Howard Beach and the Rockaway Peninsula suffered serious damage duringHurricane Sandy in October 2012 and was out of service for several months.[32] On November 20, 2012, a free shuttle designated as H replaced the Rockaway portion of the A service between Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue andBeach 90th Street via the Hammels Wye;[33] regular service was not restored until May 30, 2013.[34][35] In 2018, a two-phase program of flood mitigation work at theHammels Wye junction required further service disruptions; the second phase from July to September diverted all Far Rockaway A trips to Rockaway Park, and theRockaway Park Shuttle was rerouted to serve the A train's Far Rockaway branch.[36] A train service to Far Rockaway was suspended again between January and May 2025 during reconstruction of the Hammels Wye, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle again served the Far Rockaway branch during that time.[37][38]
Far Rockaway is the oldest currently operatingNew York City Subway station, having originally opened156 years ago, on July 29, 1869, as aLong Island Rail Road station. By contrast, theGates Avenue station on theBMT Jamaica Line in Brooklyn is the oldest station to have been built specifically for rapid transit use, having opened on May 13, 1885 (140 years ago). The Gates Avenue station is also the oldest continuously operating station in the subway system.[39] The Far Rockaway station was converted from LIRR to subwayloading gauges in 1958 and has only operated for68 years in this capacity.[18][40] Therefore, by that interpretation, Far Rockaway is actually the fifteenth newest station in the subway system (behindGrand Street;[41]Harlem–148th Street;[42]57th Street;[40] the threeArcher Avenue Line stations;[43] the threeIND 63rd Street Line stations;[44] thenew South Ferry station;[45]34th Street–Hudson Yards;[46] and the threeSecond Avenue Subway stations[47]).
| Platform level | Northbound | ← towardInwood–207th Street(Beach 25th Street) |
| Island platform | ||
| Northbound | ← towardInwood–207th Street(Beach 25th Street) | |
| Ground | Street level | Exits/entrances |
| Station building | Lobby, fare control, station agent Elevators to platform level inside station house at northeast corner of Mott Avenue and Beach 22nd Street | |
The Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue station, the Rockaway Line's eastern terminus, is built on a concrete viaduct and has two tracks and anisland platform.[48] The tracks end atbumper blocks just beyond the northeast end of the platform.[49] The station is served by theA train at all times[50] and is its southern terminus; the next stop to the west (railroad north) isBeach 25th Street.[51]
There is no track connection to the currentLIRR'sFar Rockaway station, and transferring requires a walk of three blocks.[21] ANYCDOT municipal parking facility lies just east of the station between Beach 22nd and Beach 21st Streets, adjacent to the bus loop formerly used by theQ22,QM17, andn33 services that used to terminate at the station.[52][53]
The doors at the northeast end of the platform lead to stairs down to the street levelfare control area. A tower and crew offices are at the southwest end. Two elevators and several staircases inside the station house lead to the platform level.[17] A bodega called the "A Line Deli", previously called the "Last Stop Deli", is attached to the station entrance. It was originally a cafe, having been built along with the station in the 1950s.[54][55]
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