Take a retro NYC subway ride to the Mets and Yankees home opener games
All photos courtesy of the New York Transit Museum
Baseball is back! Celebrate by taking a retro subway ride to the Mets and Yankees home opener games. The New York Transit Museum will once again run vintage trains for the first home games of the season, March 26 at Citi Field and April 3 at Yankee Stadium. Costing the typical $3 to ride, retro trains will depart from 34th Street-Hudson Yards to Mets-Willets Point, and from Grand Central-42nd Street to 161st Street-Yankee Stadium.
The museum will run its iconic 1917 IRT Lo-V train, the Train of Many Colors, and Redbird cars to bring fans to the stadiums.
The Lo-V subway fleet began service in 1917 and operated until 1969. Over 1,200 of these cars ran in the system and were among the last owned by the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) before the city purchased the subway system in 1940, as 6sqft previously reported.
The Train of Many Colors, one of the museum’s nostalgia trains, features a collection of 1960s-era cars that represent different eras of the subway system’s history, including the “Tartar Red” and “Gunn Red” Redbirds and the robin’s egg blue and cream “Bluebird” schemes.
Riders will be transported back in time, seated on rattan seats and holding handrails as they take in the train’s vintage interior, complete with retro advertisements and ceiling fans.
On Thursday, March 26, the Mets face off against the Pittsburgh Pirates at 1:15 p.m. The eight-car Redbird train will depart from 34th Street-Hudson Yards on the 7 line and make stops at Times Square-42nd Street, 5th Ave, Grand Central-42nd Street, Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue, Hunters Point Avenue, Court Square, Queensboro Plaza, 61st Street-Woodside, Junction Boulevard, and Mets-Willets Point.
The trip takes about 35 minutes, leaving riders with ample time to arrive at Citi Field before first pitch.
Next Friday, the Yankees will take on the Miami Marlins at 1:35 p.m. The four-car 1917 Lo-V train and six-car Redbird train will depart from the uptown 4 train platform of Grand Central-42nd Street at 11 a.m. on April 3 and run non-stop to 161st Street-Yankee Stadium. The trip takes about 25 minutes.
“The subway has carried fans to the ballpark for decades, and that journey is part of the Opening Day excitement. Our Nostalgia Rides honor that tradition and show how New York’s greatest institutions, from baseball to public transit, continue to bring people together,” Chelsea Newburg, public relations and marketing manager at the New York Transit Museum, said.
For those who miss the game-day rides, the featured trains can be seen at the Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn, which currently showcases more than 20 subway cars in an authentic 1936 underground station.
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