Tag Archives: New York City

Rail Photo of the Month: January 2026

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R160A 8641

Location: 5th Avenue/53rd Street Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 28, 2010

On December 8, 2025, a significant change was made to the F and M lines in Manhattan and Queens, dubbed the “F/M Swap.”  As the name implies, the F and M swapped routes between Midtown Manhattan and Queens.  Since December 2001, the F train had operated via the 63rd Street Tunnel, while the new V train operated via the 53rd Street Tunnel along with the E.  This was a significant change in and of itself, as not all express trains on Queens Boulevard would serve 53rd Street and its transfer to the 6 train at Lexington Avenue.  In the lead up to the service change in 2001, there were many requests for the F to remain as it was and for the V train to serve 63rd Street, but to no avail.  

In 2010 as part of a service cut, the V train was discontinued and replaced with the M train.  This marked the first time that the Chrystie Street Connector, a formerly out of service track between the 6th Avenue Line and Williamsburg Bridge, was put into revenue service in over four decades.  The M train made all V train stops except 2nd Avenue, and the F train remained unchanged and continued to operate on 63rd Street.  

In early 2025, there were rumblings that the MTA would swap the F and M trains in the name of “de-interlining”, or minimizing the number of splits and merges each line makes.  These merges can cause delays that can ripple across the system if one train is slightly behind schedule.  With the F train operating via 63rd Street, it has to merge with E trains at 36th Street in Queens and M trains at 47th-50 Streets in Manhattan, while the M has to merge with E trains at 5th Avenue/53rd Street in Manhattan and Queens Plaza in Queens, and outbound trains have to merge with the R at Queens Plaza as well.  With the swap in place, Queens Plaza is no longer a merge point for any of the trains stopping there.  The MTA confirmed that this swap would take place in December of 2025.  Only weekday service is impacted.  When the M is not operating its full route overnights and on weekends, the F continues to serve 63rd Street.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this change.  I am skeptical that de-interlining is as beneficial as its proponents claim, but furthermore, I am not a fan of having the F taking an entirely different route between Manhattan and Queens at different times of day.  The MTA has simplified many services over the years so that destinations and routings are predictable.  For example, at one time, the 4 train would terminate at either Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, or Utica Avenue depending on the time of day and day of the week, in a service pattern I still do not understand to this day.  Furthermore, there was a period where the 63rd Street Line (which then terminated at 21st Street-Queensbridge) would be served by either the Q, B, or F depending upon the time of day and day of the week.  The changes in 2001 simplified the service pattern, and the 2025 change reintroduces complexity.  

Pictured above is the first southbound M train from 71st Avenue to Metropolitan Avenue via the 53rd Street Tunnel and Chrystie Street connector back in June of 2010.  Except for unplanned reroutes, the M train will no longer be seen at this station anymore.

For more photos of the R160s, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2025

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Orion V 545

Location: Main Street at Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 27, 2003

June 29, 2025 was a major day for bus network redesigns.  On this single day, Winnipeg, Canada, WMATA, TheBus, and to an extent Ride On in the Washington, DC area, and Queens, NY (and maybe elsewhere, too, but those are the ones I am aware of) all implemented new bus networks.  In “honor” of the occasion, I posted about the now former L2 route in DC last month, so I thought for this month I should shift the focus to somewhere else.  I don’t have so many photos of buses in Queens, but I did find this one from 2003.  The Q15 still exists post redesign phase one, but with some minor rerouting, and a new limited stop Q61 also parallels portions of its route.  However, the Orion V pictured here won’t be operating on any of the revised routes as it was retired from the New York City bus fleet in the mid-2010s.

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit Orion Vs, please click here.  

Oren’s Reading List: Inside the Massive Repair Shops Where Subway Cars Go for a Makeover

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R68 2582
Subway cars travel a lot of miles each day and each year over the course of their service lives.  And many subway cars in New York have been in service for nearly 40 years or more.  Ever wonder how they keep them maintained and running?  Wonder no more with this in depth look with photos from the New York Times.

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.

Bus Photo of the Month: March 2024

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New Flyer C40LF 259

Location: Brooklyn Avenue and St. Marks Place, Brooklyn, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: February 26, 2024

The New Flyer Low Floor bus model was the cornerstone of New Flyer Industries’ product line for nearly 30 years.  The model was introduced in 1991 after a Dutch bus model, Den Oudsten’s B86 Low Floor, was adapted for the North American market.  Ultimately, the New Flyer Low Floor would be available in 30, 35, 40, and 60 foot lengths and with CNG, diesel, diesel-electric hybrid, electric (trolleybus), hydrogen fuel cell, gasoline-electric hybrid, hydrogen electric hybrid, and LNG variants.  The New Flyer Low Floor was available commercially through the 2010 model year, having effectively been replaced by the “restyled” New Flyer Low Floor model starting in 2006.  However, when New York City Transit wished to purchase a large order of new CNG buses despite the original Low Floor line being discontinued, an additional four orders of C40LFs were manufactured for the United States’s largest transit agency.  One of those buses is pictured here.

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit’s C40LF buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: March 2024

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M9 9010

Location: Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: Long Island Railroad
Date of Photo: February 26, 2024

About a year ago and after about 60 years of planning and construction, the Long Island Railroad finally arrived at Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan’s east side.  Since 1910, the LIRR’s sole Manhattan terminal had been Penn Station on the west side but there had been a longstanding desire to make it convenient for LIRR passengers to reach the east side and avoid congestion at Penn Station.  The first proposal to bring the LIRR to Manhattan’s east side was formally made in 1963.  In 1968, the MTA proposed the construction of the 63rd Street Line, a two level tunnel under the East River and Roosevelt Island that would have subway trains running on its upper level and LIRR trains on its lower level.  Groundbreaking for the 63rd Street Line took place on November 24, 1969 and the upper level subway tunnels would open for service on October 29, 1989, initially as a stub line to 21st Street-Queensbridge before being connected to the Queens Boulevard Line at the end of 2001.  However, the LIRR tunnels remained unused and unconnected to any other tracks.

In the 1990s after a study showed that more LIRR riders worked closer to Grand Central than to Penn Station, the MTA began to make plans to make use of the lower level tunnel meant for LIRR trains.  Construction on the tunnels to the east (in Queens) and west (in Manhattan) of the initial tunnel, as well as the LIRR platforms at Grand Central itself, began in 2008.  On January 25, 2023, the new station, referred to officially as “Grand Central Madison”, opened for service.  For about a month, trains shuttled between Grand Central and the LIRR’s hub at Jamaica.  On February 27, “full service” at Grand Central Madison began.  In conjunction with the construction of a third track on the LIRR main line east of Jamaica, a significant increase in the number of trains that the LIRR could operate into Manhattan at peak periods was facilitated with this service change.

Grand Central Madison features eight tracks served by four platforms about 140 feet beneath street level.  The escalators that serve the station’s mezzanine are the longest in all of New York City.  One of the most remarkable things I found while exploring the station earlier this week is that despite this section of Grand Central being brand new, it was designed to feel as if it was a part of Grand Central “proper” with its curved roofs and using the same style of font and positioning for wayfinding as the older parts of Grand Central.  With the exception of the escalator that created the “transition” between the Metro-North section and LIRR section of the station which didn’t mesh nearly as well as the rest, the aesthetics really made for a unified station experience.  The artwork above each escalator from the concourse to the mezzanine featuring elements of the New York State seal was a nice touch as well.

Have you been to Grand Central Madison yet?

For more photos of the Long Island Railroad, please click here.  

Oren’s Reading List: First Stop Last Stop

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R160B 9093 at Coney Island, September 1, 2019

There is something alluring about the last stop on a train line.  Perhaps you take a train regularly and wonder what exactly is at a place such as Wonderland (end of the MBTA Blue Line) or Cockfosters (end of the London Piccadilly Line).  Since 2013, New York based artist and photographer Rita Nannini has been on a quest to photograph the first and last stations on each of New York’s 26 subway lines (she counts each of the three shuttles separately, the Z as its own line, and also included the Staten Island Railway).  It is interesting to see what she has selected for each station, since I myself have also been to each terminal station (as well as all the other intermediate stations along the way), and remarkable given the breadth of New York’s subway system the many different places you will be deposited should you ride a train to the end of its route.  One only has to take the A train to the Rockaways to understand.

You can see Rita Nannini’s work on her website.  

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.

Bus Photo of the Month: January 2024

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1956 GMC TDH-5106 Old Look 3100

Location: West 42nd Street & 9th Avenue, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 12, 2012

In addition to running the vintage train during the holiday season as I wrote about yesterday, for some number of years, the MTA also ran vintage buses in service during the December holiday period.  Most years, the service was limited to Manhattan, but there were other years the buses ventured out into other parts of the city, including the other four boroughs.  I don’t believe the vintage buses have run since 2018.  It was often hard to catch one since even the slightest bit of precipitation would result in them being pulled off the road for safety reasons, plus they were subject to traffic delays and the like.  However, I did get to ride some of them in 2012.  

Would you want the MTA to try bringing back the vintage buses in a future year?

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit’s GMC Old Look Buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: January 2024

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R1 100

Location: Broadway-Lafayette Station, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: December 27, 2015

For the past five Saturdays, New York City Transit ran the “Arnine” vintage train during the winter holiday season for the first time since the pandemic.  This tradition began nearly 20 years ago, typically with the train operating each Saturday or Sunday from Thanksgiving through Christmas or New Years Day along the 6th Avenue Line and then to Queens Plaza via the 53rd Street Tunnel (most years) or to Harlem via Central Park West (other years).  However, no vintage train was operated in 2020.  In 2021, a series of events to mark the retirement of the R32s was held instead.  In 2022, the “Train of Many Colors” was used for the holiday train, running along the 7th Avenue-Broadway Line.

Some transit fans complain that the MTA just does the same thing each year and never changes up the route or equipment all that much.  I’ve always enjoyed getting to run into friends in the transit fan community on the vintage train in the years I have been able to ride it, and Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page and our son have enjoyed riding it as well.  My attitude is be thankful the MTA runs anything at all, since they could always opt to run nothing.

I didn’t make it to New York to ride this year, but did you ride the vintage train this year?  

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit’s “Arnine” cars, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: February 2023

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R62A 1946

Location: Grand Central, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 20, 2009

On this date in 1913, Grand Central Terminal opened following ten years of construction.  Today’s Grand Central is not the first train station to be built on that site.  The first Grand Central Depot opened in October of 1871 with 12 tracks.  At that time, it was the largest open space in the United States and the largest railroad station in the world.  However, the station reached capacity by the mid-1890s.  An annex was added but capacity was reached again in 1897.  The terminal was reconstructed and in 1900, became known as Grand Central Station. 

At that time, the trains serving the station were steam hauled, which meant that the busy tunnel under Park Avenue leading to the station from the north (the only way for trains to access the station) was filled with smoke and soot.  Following a January 1902 crash that killed 15 passengers, the New York Central Railroad (which owned Grand Central) and the New York State legislature agreed to only operate electric trains into the terminal.  Less than 12 months after that fatal collision, New York Central Vice President William J. Wilgus proposed an extension of the Park Avenue Tunnel by covering the existing open cut used by the railroad from 46th Street to 59th Street.  This was now feasible because once Grand Central was only served by electric trains, there would be no need to vent smoke and soot from steam trains (since there wouldn’t be any).  The air rights over the terminal could then be sold to raise money for the railroad.  This proposal had to be approved and enacted upon quickly because plans were already underway for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (better known as the IRT and now a part of the New York City Subway) to build subway lines around Grand Central, at which time the New York Central would lose its rights to construct underground in that area.  The new station was built in phases around the existing station so as to maintain train service throughout the duration of the project.  The rebuilt terminal, now known as Grand Central, saw its first train arrive just minutes after midnight on February 2, 1913.

In the ensuing 110 years, Grand Central has served as a catalyst for development in what is now Midtown Manhattan.  At the time Cornelius Vanderbilt commissioned the original Grand Central, there was not much in the way of development in the area.  However, he was convinced New York City would grow to the north and eventually, his railroad terminal would be in the heart of the city.  His vision proved to be very accurate, to the point that the Long Island Railroad began a long term project (that was first proposed in the 1960s) to connect its tracks to Grand Central Terminal in the 1990s when surveys indicated most LIRR riders worked near Grand Central, not Penn Station where LIRR trains terminate.  That project, known as East Side Access and more recently as “Grand Central Madison” culminated in the opening of eight new tracks served by four new platforms 140 feet below street level on January 25, 2023.  

Prior to the opening of Grand Central Madison, the most recent significant change to Grand Central was on the New York City Subway’s shuttle platforms.  As part of the 2015-2019 MTA Capital Program, the 42nd Street Shuttle that connects Grand Central to Times Square became ADA accessible and as part of that project, Track 3, the center shuttle track and the one the train in this photo is using, was removed.  The single island platform that now exists between Track 1 and Track 4 measures 22,000 square feet (2,000 square meters) and is the largest platform in the New York City by area.  The rebuilt Shuttle reopened on September 7, 2021.  You can see where Track 3 was by looking at the floor tiles on the new platform, the pattern of the tiles and columns between the floor and ceiling indicate where the track right-of-way used to be.

For more photos of R62A trains, please click here.  

Some Things Are Worth Waiting For…

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New Flyer XE60 19506
Very observant visitors to this site might have noticed two things recently.  First, it has been a very long time (nearly two years in fact) since any announcements of new photos being posted to Oren’s Transit Page have been made.  Second, the January 2023 Bus Photo of the Month came from a city that was not included on Oren’s Transit Page before.  The reasons for this are several fold.  In 2021, travel was slowly resuming and the Oren’s Transit Page Baby (as he was known then) required a level of care that was age-appropriate but one that does not facilitate frequent website updates.  In 2022, travel really took off again, as my travels took me not only up and down the Northeast Corridor but to the Florida panhandle, San Diego, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Israel, and Greece.  As you can imagine, travels that extensive generate lots of photos, which in turn, take time to organize, touch up, caption, and post.  The good news is I’ve made some headway on that front, and I believe any photos I took prior to May 2022 are now online.

The “highlights” from this update in my opinion in “chronological” order are:

The rest of 2022’s photos are still to come, and I’ve already taken one trip within the US in 2023 and I’m sure more are to come, so stay tuned.  The photos from all those travels will be posted.  Eventually.

Here is the full listing of where new photos were added to the site, with new sections highlighted in bold and italics.