Five rush hour A trains provide service between Rockaway Park and Manhattan in the peak direction.

Incorporated in 1877, the line was built to better serve the beach resorts in the Rockaways, cutting travel times by 30 minutes over the existing South Side Railroad route.

Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) trains began using the branch that year by operating over its Montauk Division.

[3] The crossing across Jamaica Bay between Howard Beach and Broad Channel is the longest distance between any two adjacent stations in the entire New York City Subway system.

This track allows the shuttle to turn around significantly faster than it had been able to do before, when it was forced to relay at Howard Beach–JFK Airport or Euclid Avenue.

Plans for the New York City Subway to take over the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Rockaway branches were put forth as early as 1932.

[16] The Long Island Rail Road's wooden trestle over Jamaica Bay often caught fire.

Therefore, the railroad asked Green Bus Lines to provide service for passengers stranded at Broad Channel and The Raunt.

Another took place at The Raunt on December 15, 1948, delaying trains between nine and nineteen minutes during the morning rush hour.

300 feet (91 m) of the trestle was destroyed during a July 4, 1949, fire, and morning rush hour service was delayed the following day.

The fire burned all night and destroyed 1,800 feet (550 m) of the trestle between The Raunt and Broad Channel stations, and the estimated cost to repair it was $1 million.

The New York City Board of Transportation, operators of the subway system, started preparing contracts for the reconstruction of the line right after the sale went through.

[17] In total, $47.5 million was spent to rebuild the line and to convert it for subway use, something they were planning to do as far back as the late 1920s.

[11][18] As part of the construction to convert the line to subway use, two new steel swing bridges were built to cross the North and South Channels, and two artificial islands were built using sand from Jamaica Bay to provide a roadbed for the subway trestle.

[18][20]: 6  The unpopular double fare was abolished on September 1, 1975, though it coincided with a system-wide fare increase, as well as an increase in tolls on the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge to the Rockaways.

[26][27][28][29] In 1986, the New York City Transit Authority launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the segment of the Rockaway Line south of Howard Beach, due to low ridership and high repair costs.

[30][31] Numerous figures, including New York City Council member Carol Greitzer, criticized the plans.

The segment of the line between Howard Beach and the Rockaway Peninsula suffered serious damage during Hurricane Sandy and was out of service for several months.

[4] On November 20, 2012, a free shuttle designated as H replaced the Rockaway portion of the A service between Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue and Beach 90th Street via the Hammels Wye.

[33][34][35][36] In 2018, a two-phase program of flood mitigation work along the Hammels Wye required further service disruptions.