I took my first trip out to Far Rockaway a little more than a week ago and while it had some excellent views, it was painfully slow. Is this normal? If so, is it a problem of track quality or something else?
That's an anomaly.
Usually, they just wrap it around and run between the North bridge and Broad Channel. It's the fastest run on the TA.
I used to ride that line to work when I lived in Rockaway Beach and sometimes I wondered if the trains were going to disintegrate from excessive speed.