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Return of the Redbirds: MTA to roll out vintage subway trains for Mets Opening Day
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Mar 31, 2025
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Marc Glucksman
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Mar 31, 2025
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Redbirds will once again take flight on Queens’ elevated subway tracks on Friday, more than two decades after the MTA retired the vintage train cars.
Transit officials said they plan to pull one of the old trains out of storage for a commemorative ride to the Mets home opener at Citi Field. Baseball fans and railroad aficianados can catch the old train from the Hudson Yards–34th Street station at noon.
The MTA said it’ll make express stops out to the ballpark ahead of the Mets’ 3:15 p.m. game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Redbirds first entered service in 1959, three years before the Mets' inaugural season. The MTA ran even older trains to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium last week. Those “Lo-V” cars date back to 1917.
But the Redbirds might be closer to New Yorkers’ hearts simply because many of the city's residents can remember riding in the cars. They were retired from passenger service in 2003 and some have since been repurposed as work trains to transport tools and materials to subway construction sites.
Despite their nickname, the Redbirds weren’t always red. A 2019 exhibit from the New York Transit Museum highlighted they were painted a variety of colors during their 40-plus years of service. During the 1964 World’s Fair, they were painted blue. Their final color was dubbed “Gunn Red” after 1980s-era NYC Transit President David Gunn.
For a more modern transit experience to Citi Field, MTA officials recommended taking a 19-minute ride from Penn Station to Mets-Willets Point on the Long Island Rail Road’s Port Washington branch.
Tagged
new york city
queens
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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