Thousands of Queens straphangers are going straight from the “summer of hell’’ to a winter nightmare — with another key subway service about to get iced for months for repairs.
Service on the A line and its shuttle to the Rockaways — the only trains to the area — is set to be cut from Jan. 17 to May 19 to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy, the MTA announced last week, causing frustration among public transit customers on the peninsula who will now have to wait for shuttle buses or ferries in the freezing cold.
“Why make [straphangers] wait outside during the winter?” said a local walking on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk over the weekend.
The woman, who declined to give her name, told The Post she has to travel into Manhattan regularly for work.
“It’s cold, it gets rainy. It’s beautiful now, but you don’t know what will happen in January,” she said. “A lot of people here work in Manhattan or another place. I just know I don’t like it.”