MTA Nostalgia Rides

On Sunday I took a leisurely walk from my apartment, through Central Park and down Fifth Avenue to see the holiday window displays. I ended up near Rockefeller Center, so I decided to take the D train home. As I was waiting for the D, a vintage subway car pulled up across the platform and I was so surprised that I got on it despite the fact that it was running on the M track and in the opposite direction from where I needed to go.

I had seen these cars before when Trent and I visited the Transit Museum, but never one that was fully-operational on the real, current-day tracks. I only rode one stop, since it was going the wrong direction, but it was definitely worth the minor detour.

I did some research after I got home, and found out that the vintage car was part of the MTA's Holiday Season Nostalgia Train and Bus Rides. Basically, for the month of December, the MTA runs vintage subway cars along the M line every Sunday, and buses from several different eras along 42nd Street during the weekdays (weather depending).

Yesterday, without even intending to, I happened upon three of the vintage buses during my lunchtime walk down 42nd to Grand Central. I wasn't fast enough to catch any of them, but I'm definitely going to try to ride at least one before the month is over.

Although my subway ride was short, it was still really fun and different to be riding in a car with padded, wicker seats, open-blade ceiling fans and period-correct advertisements lining the walls. I love that the MTA does a thing like the nostalgia rides, which really serves no purpose other than to surprise and delight unsuspecting riders (the buses are equipped with new fare boxes, and cost the same as a regular ride). I've always said that I wished I was able to step back in time and experience places in the city as they were during different periods in time, and the nostalgia rides do just that, if even only for a moment.