Redbird Subway Cars Make Last Run

www.nycsubway.org The redbird at the Woodside 61 St. Station

An 11-car subway train pulled out of the Times Square station at10: 30 a.m. and approximately 30 minutes later came to a stop at Willets Point-Shea Stadium. It was the end of an era. The last of the legendary "redbird" subway cars had made their last run on the New York City transit system.

The retirement of the redbirds also takes with it the last vestige of a once common element in life in New York City. The cars were the last to sport a metal hand strap for riders who made their trips standing to hold on to while the train was in motion. The new cars boast metal rails suspended from the ceiling for passengers to hold. Subway riders cannot technically be referred to as "straphangers" any longer, although the term is unlikely to fade from common usage any time soon.

The last redbird train run capped more than 40 years of service for the fleet, which was made up of six similar classes of car manufactured between 1959 and 1963 and which ran on many of the New York City Transit A Division—numbered line—routes. The cars have been used since 1963 and originally sported several different paint jobs, none of them the Tuscan red that has given the cars their name in their later years. Only the cars that ran to the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park sported the blue and cream colors of the fair, and all the cars in the fleet were painted MTA silver and blue in the 1970s. They were next painted all white in the 1980s and then painted red when the fleet was overhauled and cleaned of painted graffiti between 1984 and 1989.

The last redbirds in the passenger fleet were the last to be manufactured. They were built in 1963 and 1964 by the St. Louis Car Company. The R33 and R36 cars, 51 feet long and weighing 75,600 pounds, were put into service on the No. 7 line and carried passengers to the 1964 World’s Fair. Although ravaged by corrosion as their time in service began to wind down, the redbirds provided reliable transportation for hundreds of thousands of commuters with the aid of the NYC Transit maintenance force.

Workman boarding the train at the the ‘last stop,’ Willets Point . Conductor Danny Wrynn took the last redbird subway train from Times Square to Willets Point-Shea Stadium in Flushing on November 3.

The redbirds have been replaced by stainless steel R62A class cars manufactured in 1983 by Bombardier. "With the phase-in of these stainless steel cars, Flushing Line customers are riding on brighter, more modern equipment with an excellent reputation for reliability, NYC Transit President Lawrence Reuter said. "The fact of the matter is, [the redbirds] are obsolete equipment, and have outlived their usefulness. The time has come to retire them in favor of cars that are more modern and more dependable."

The entire subway fleet is now made up of exclusively stainless steel cars and, according to MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, trains have never been more reliable. Since 2000, Kalikow added, 1,400 new subway cars have been purchased by the MTA. Partial funding for the new R142, R142a and R143 cars now in service was provided through grants from the Federal Transit administration. Kalikow pointed out that major investments have also been made in station rehabilitation, track replacement and signal modernization. Capital funding has also been invested in facilities where subway trains and buses are stored, maintained and overhauled. "Through the funding provided by our capital programs, we have invested nearly $2 billion in the purchase of new subway cars from 2000 through 2004," Kalikow declared. "Even for those of us who tend to be nostalgic, the retirement of the redbirds has a lot more bearing on the future than the past."

The majority of the retired redbirds have been the basis of an artificial reef program along the shores of several states on the Eastern Seaboard. NYC Transit has also sold parts—collectors have snapped up sign boxes, hand holds, horns and other items, which first went on sale about a year ago. Some 100 of the cars have been saved and will be converted to work equipment.

Reuter was firm in his contention that the retirement of the redbirds means a new day for No. 7 line riders. "We can’t guarantee the outcome of a Mets game, but the R62As should make the ride to and from Shea Stadium much more pleasurable," he said.

Photos Jeremy Miller