For once, New Yorkers are praying for subway delays.
The MTA’s announcement that it will phase out an iconic portion of the fleet in 2025 has normally jaded straphangers feeling nostalgic over the loss of another piece of Big Apple history.
More than 1,700 subway cars dating back to the 1980s, known for their staggered, shades-of-orange seating, will be replaced by more efficient models with a lot more standing room — leaving some riders emotionally stranded.
“I will miss the colored seats … we all miss stuff once they change things,” Queens-born actress Debi Mazar told The Post, admitting to being “old enough” to mourn the loss of upholstered seats, last seen in the 1970s.
The “Goodfellas” actress, who once voiced PSAs for the MTA, loves her hometown transit so much that she once vied to compete in the “Miss Subways” pageant and wears an old subway token from her birth year — 1964 — as a necklace.
Mazar — who did admit she’s happy to see more dedicated seating for the elderly in the new livery — isn’t the only one who will miss models R46, R62/62A and R68/R68A, with their staggered seating patterns that allowed more passengers to take a load off tired tootsies.
South Brooklyn councilman Justin Brannan waxed positively poetic when asked to comment on the latest commuter chatter.
“There was just something special about watching the sunrise from the N train riding over the Manhattan Bridge. Those yellow and orange seats were so proud,” Brannan said.
“I remember being a kid and spending all day in the Village or the Lower East Side. Scoring a corner orange seat. It was glory. Even though they kinda looked like the MTA stole them from a McDonald’s. I guess you had to be there. They will be missed.”
Others have romantic memories, like Gothamite Veronica B., who recalled a magic moment while in the early stages of dating her future husband.
“We started cuddling on the train in the two-seat section,” the commuter, who withheld her last name for privacy reasons, said, adding that she skipped over her regular stop home — hoping to keep the moment alive.
“We were just having so much fun.”
Loss of creativity
Many New Yorkers say that the boring pale blue benches and their newer navy counterparts — the R211/R211S, which recently began running on the A and C lines — just don’t look good aesthetically.
“Big modernism just decided to sweep NY away from creativity. When will you ever see silver and bright colors like orange touch together again?” said Alex Rivera, a Bronx photographer called “The Bronxer.”
“I think the next generation isn’t going to be so creative now. Everything now is so monotone,” he mused.
Sarah Nisbett, an Upper East Side artist who amassed online fame by sketching strangers on her subway rides and handing them their portraits, said the old trains’ seating arrangement offered a much more unique perspective.
“You interact in a different way with people literally at a different angle,” she said. “The alignment also felt like a wonderful example of public privacy. Everybody had their own rooms.”
Sindi Schorr, an Upper East Side realtor and proud member of the NYC Transit Museum, compared losing the dated cars to the sorrow many felt when the MTA phased out subway tokens for MetroCards in 2003.
“I really think there’s value in preserving the uniqueness of our city,” Schorr said.
Ethan Blake, a 29-year-old in Morningside Heights, pointed out that the newer trains also have a much more bland, corporate feel to them.
“The advertisements [on new trains] are much more pervasive,” he said while riding an orange seat Brooklyn bound B train.
“I’m a big reader on the subway. I look for space where my peripherals are not bombarded with advertisements or screens. The older trains have more of that.”
The old-school transit seating was the setting for plenty of only-in-New-York moments over the years.
“I saw someone set up a meal during the holiday season about eight years ago,” Jalen Coleman, 28, of Harlem, said.
“They set up a table with food on it in the middle. It was so cute. It was what the spirit of these trains were and are supposed to be. It’s saddening to hear they’re going away. The spacing in these trains has always been the best.”
The Great Seat debate
The unique seating alignment on the orange trains became such a part of NYC life that it recently was the subject of a major debate on social media, where straphangers argued over their favorite spots.
Train vlogger Myron Mitchell, 22, of East New York, Brooklyn, reminisced to The Post about the joy of having a window seat for the views — something bench-style cars don’t offer.
“The views of the Manhattan bridge, coming out of the tunnel to see Yankee Stadium, and taking the 7 train in Sunnyside, Queens to see the Midtown skyline are my absolute favorite,” Mitchell, known online as TransitTalkNYC, said.
Rick McGuire, the 40-year-old Brooklyn resident who runs the viral Subway Creatures Instagram account, revealed that among train buffs, there’s actually an informal numbering system for the old seats — with the prized perpendicular window seat known as number four.
“A lot of people felt that it was the most effective when it came to sitting on the train,” he said.
According to McGuire, the worst seat considered to be the middle seat, or number two.
New Yorkers who spoke with The Post tended to agree with the assessment.
“The corner seat with a window view was my favorite,” Nisbett, the underground artist, added of seat four.
“You could look out and watch New York pass you by outside, and you could see it pass you by inside, coming alive in the subway.”
Rivera, the photographer, added that the special seating alignment gave a quick glimpse into each rider’s heart.
“The seating format shows if the person next to you is friendly or not,” he said. “It shows their personality without them even knowing. That was beautiful to see every day.”
