Free Subway Shuttle Starting for Part of Rockaway Peninsula The New York City subway system has added a new, if familiar, letter. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Monday that a free shuttle, to be known as the H train, would begin operating at 4 a.m. Tuesday along much of the Rockaway Peninsula, one of the transit system's most devastated stretches in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The trains will run every 15 minutes between the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue and Beach 90th Street-Holland stations [PDF], making all intermediate stops through a connection known as the Hammels Wye, which is not typically used for passenger service. Riders will be able to connect to the shuttle bus service previously set up between Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue and Howard Beach. "The A train tracks from Howard Beach to the Rockaways were almost completely destroyed by the storm, and replacing them is a tremendous undertaking," Mr. Cuomo said. While that work continues, this new shuttle service will help improve travel for people in the Rockaways who are still recovering from Sandy's effects. From 1962 to 1972, Rockaway shuttle service was known as the HH, according to Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Since 1992, there has been no line called the H or the HH, though internally, officials still refer to the Rockaway Park shuttle as the H to differentiate it from the Times Square and Franklin Avenue shuttles. The three lines are all known as the S. This time around, the line will use subway cars that were trucked to the Rockaways over four nights after tracks connecting them to the rest of Queens were damaged by the storm. Twenty R-32 subway cars - each 60 feet long and weighing 80,000 pounds - were loaded onto flatbed trucks in Ozone Park, Queens, driven over the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, then placed back on the rails at the Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street station. Joseph J. Lhota, chairman of the authority, praised the "unprecedented creativity" required to restore subway service to the Rockaways, but said the agency's work would not be complete until the A train returned. The H trains will run 20 hours a day, shutting down starting at midnight to allow a window for maintenance and inspections.