Tag Archives: MTA New York City Transit

Rail Photo of the Month: October 2020

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R62A 1946R62A 1946

Location: Times Square Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: March 24, 2017

Later this month on October 27, the New York City Subway will mark the 116th anniversary of its opening.  Since then, the system has grown from a single line within Manhattan to a sprawling system with nearly 500 stations and nearly 6 million passengers on an average weekday (as of 2017).  Although the original route is no longer operated as it was on October 27, 1904, trains continue to ply the route between Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central on the 4, 5, and 6 trains, Grand Central and Times Square on the 42nd Street Shuttle, and between Times Square and 145th Street on the 1, 2, and 3 trains.  This routing was used until the “H” system was inaugurated on August 1, 1918.  The shuttle platforms that are in use today date back to the original IRT opening in 1904, although the MTA is currently in the process of rebuilding the Shuttle in order to make the line ADA compliant.  Until this project began, it was very easy to see the original IRT construction while standing on the Times Square Shuttle platforms.

For more photos of New York City’s R62A subway cars, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: May 2020

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R32 3521

R32 3521

Location: 125th Street/St. Nicholas Avenue Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 23, 2018

There is to be no suggestion that a subway car is somehow a Covid-19 “victim.”  However, the retirement of New York City’s oldest subway cars and the oldest subway cars in operation anywhere in the United States came unexpectedly as a result of modified fleet requirements to provide essential service in response to the ongoing pandemic.  Due to needing fewer cars to maintain peak service right now and the arrival of the final R179 cars, the R32s were officially retired on April 27, 2020.  This photo, which I took in December 2018, was one of the last ones I would ever take of this car type in revenue service.  

A total of 600 R32 cars were built and delivered in 1964 and 1965.  These cars are actually older than the MTA itself, as New York City Transit was not a part of the former agency until 1968.  Over the course of their service lives, these cars operated on just about every B Division (lettered) line at one time or another.  In their final years, they could be found on the A, C, J, and Z lines.  They outlived the R38, R40, R42, and R44 cars, all of which were built after the R32. 

The retirement of the R32 sadly also marks the end of an era on the New York City Subway, as these were the last cars in service to have a true railfan window at the front of each train.  I have fond memories of standing at the front of the Redbirds and other New York City subway cars, feeling the dank breeze coming through the storm door and watching the signals and other trackside signage go by.  Unfortunately, that is is an experience that can only live on as a memory now.

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2019

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NovaBus RTS-06 5242

NovaBus RTS-06 5242

Location: East 42nd Street at 3rd Avenue, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 12, 2012

It is hard to believe, but the end of an era for public transit in New York City is approaching in just a matter of days.  The last of the venerable “RTS” buses, which have been transporting New Yorkers around the five boroughs for thirty-eight years, are due to be retired in the coming days.  The RTS was first developed by GMC’s Truck and Coach Division in 1977 and New York City Transit took its first delivery of RTS buses in 1981.  These buses were able to be recognized by their rounded, futuristic looking fronts, especially when compared to the “New Look” buses that made up much of the fleet when the RTSs were introduced.  Between 1981 and 1999, a total of 4,877 RTS buses were ordered from three different manufacturers (GMC sold the rights to the RTS design to TMC who later transferred those rights to NovaBUS).  These buses were also the first buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts, and helped New York City Transit become one of the first agencies of its size to have a 100 percent accessible fleet.  Today, there are only a handful of RTS buses remaining in service in New York City, and it is expected that the remaining units will be taken off the streets by May 10, if not before then due to the fact these buses run on diesel fuel, while newer buses are powered by compressed natural gas or hybrid engines.

New York certainly isn’t the only city to have operated the RTS, but it is certainly the city I associate most with this model of bus.  These buses were everywhere when I would visit family in New York in the 1990s, and while I knew my “home” agency of WMATA had some as well (and they often served routes near where I grew up), I didn’t expect to ride them all that often whereas getting anything but an RTS in New York was a notable event.  I can’t say they were my favorite New York City buses, although I always loved the single seat on the right side just in front of the rear door.  I found the rear door lifts to be annoying as a passenger (it could take a long time to load or unload a wheelchair compared to a bus with a front door lift) and the narrow front door and stairwell was not easy to navigate when traveling with luggage or bulky items.  Over the years, New Flyer D60HFs, Orion Vs, Orion VIIs, and NovaBus LFSAs have come to dominate the routes where I stay most often in New York.  The photo featured this month is one of the last ones I ever took of an RTS in New York, and I took this photo over six years ago.  I believe the last time I rode an RTS in New York City was in 2014.  It just goes to show how much the New York City bus scene has changed in recent years.  However, I don’t expect the association between the RTS and New York City to fade in my mind anytime soon.

What are your memories of the RTS in New York City?

For more photos of New York City Transit’s RTS buses, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: January 2019

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R179 3150

R179 3150

Location: 125th Street/Saint Nicholas Avenue Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 23, 2018

It seems appropriate to welcome the new Gregorian year with a photo of one of the newest New York City Subway trains, the R179.  This is the first time I’ve taken a photo of an R179.  These B Division cars began revenue testing in November 2017, officially entered revenue service in December 2017, and currently operate on the C and J lines.  The R179 is yet another class of “New Technology Trains” (NTT) that include the R142, R142A, R160, and R188 car types.  The extent to which the NTTs have become the rolling stock associated with New York City Transit can be seen in how as I was taking these pictures, other transit fans at the station awaiting the vintage holiday train thought these cars were R160s.  While the R160s and R179s do look similar, they are not the same.  While the R32s and R42s that will be replaced by the R179s are not likely to be retired prior to the end of the Canarsie Line partial shutdown in 2020, the New York City transit fleet is gradually becoming more homogeneous as time goes on.

For more photos of the New York City Subway, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2018

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NovaBUS LFS-A 5490

NovaBUS LFS-A 5490

Location: Broadway & West 86th Street, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 15, 2018

On June 29, 2008, New York City Transit introduced its first “Select Bus Service” route, the Bx12 on Fordham Road in the Bronx.  The Bx12 SBS featured off board fare payment, all door boarding, new bus lanes, and traffic signal prioritization. Over the past ten years, SBS service has expanded to 17 routes serving all five boroughs, which most of these same features being introduced on the subsequent SBS lines.  In addition, the SBS bus fleet features a special light blue livery, seen in the photo above, so passengers can easily distinguish SBS from regular local buses.  Have you been on SBS in New York City?  What do you think of it?  

For more photos of New York City area buses, please click here.

Oren’s Reading List: How Many Metrocards from NYC Do You Have?

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Before the Metrocard turned gold in 1997 with the introduction of free bus to subway and subway to bus transfers, it was blue.

Last week, NY1 News in New York City ran a story about a man from The Bronx who has been collecting MTA’s Metrocards since they were introduced in 1994.  He estimates that he has over 1,000 cards, including the original blue ones as well as some special cards for students and senior citizens.  You can watch the video on NY1’s website.

Do you have any blue Metrocards?  Any other notable cards from NYC in your collection?

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

The NYC Vintage Holiday Train is Back!

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For the past 10+ years, New York City Transit has operated its vintage R1-9 trains from the 1930s.  Unlike most other times these trains operate when only passengers who purchase a special ticket may board the train for an excursion, the holiday train is open to anyone who pays a regular subway fare.  In past years, the train would run along the V and later the M lines between 2nd Avenue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Queens Plaza.  However, for the first time, this year the train will be taking a different route.  While it will start at 2nd Avenue, this year it will travel on the F line to Lexington Avenue/63rd Street and then continue on the Q line to the new 96th Street/2nd Avenue station.

The holiday train operates each Sunday through December 24th.  It departs 2nd Avenue at 10 AM, 12PM, 2 PM, and 4 PM, and it departs 96th Street at 11 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, and 5 PM.

Do you plan to ride it this year?

Rail Photo of the Month: August 2017

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R160A 8497

R160A 8497

Location: 9th Avenue Station, Brooklyn, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 24, 2010

Over time, transit routes can and do change.  I took this photo of an M train entering the 9th Avenue station in Brooklyn on the last day of M train service at this location in 2010.  Starting the next Monday morning, the M train had a new route that used a track connection that had been out of use since 1976.  The M train is just one of many New York City Subway lines which has maintained both a segment where it has always run (Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn) and a variety of segments that it no longer serves (Brighton Line, West End Line, Nassau Street Line, etc.).  The same can go for certain stations.  The Myrtle Avenue Line originally served a now demolished upper level station at the Myrtle Avenue-Broadway Station and continued to Downtown Brooklyn.  The 9th Avenue Station where I took this photo has a disused lower level that serves the now demolished Culver Shuttle Line; you can see the tracks leading to that abandoned level to the right of the M train in this photo.  The New York City Subway has many fun nuances like this, as do other systems, though perhaps to a slightly lesser extent.  It is what makes this hobby so fun sometimes, to travel around and know what was and what could be and to document it as best I can.

For more photos of the R160s, please click here.

 

Rail Photo of the Month: January 2017

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R44 5410

R44 5410

Location: Beach 25th Street Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 28, 2010

 

Today at noon, the Second Avenue Subway will open for revenue service in New York City. The Second Avenue Subway was first conceived in 1929 as a six track line running the length of Manhattan.  Needless to say, it took a long time to turn this line from sketches on maps in to reality.  So long in fact that several classes of subway cars that were designed with the intention of operating them on the Second Avenue Subway were introduced, operated elsewhere on the subway, and have already been retired.  One of these car classes was the R44, which is featured as the photo of the month for January 2017 in honor of the opening of the Second Avenue Subway.

The R44 was the first New York City subway car to be 75 feet long, under the premise it would be more efficient to operate 8 75 foot long cars as a single train instead of 10 60 foot long cars (both trainsets are 600 feet long).  They were also the first cars to feature bucket seats, audible door chimes, and lacked the traditional straps that standing passengers held on to.  They were introduced on the F line in 1971, overhauled in the early 1990s, and remained in service until their retirement in 2010 due to structural integrity concerns, having never had the chance to operate on the line they were expected to serve.  Instead, the Second Avenue Subway will be served by the R160s that currently operate on the Q line.

For more photos of the R44 subway cars, please click here.