Fans Climb Aboard Nostalgia Train for Yankee Stadium Run on Opening Day

Last year, when the NYC Transit Authority ran its vintage nostalgia subway car to Yankee Stadium on opening day, there was an earthquake in New Jersey that sent tremors to the city.

But thankfully, the tremors did not effect the subways. “I never felt it,” said one MTA worker on this year’s train on March 28 as it got ready to leave the Bowling Green Station, running on the 5 train/Lexington Ave. line.

Demetrius Crichlow, MTA President, jumped on board the first car when it was leaving the Bowling Green station. It cruised non-stop to Grand Central where throngs of Yankee fans were waiting on the platform around noon for a train that then ran non-stop to the 161st St. station for the 3:10 game.

“It’s always a great day when you can celebrate a great New York City tradition in a nearly 100 year old subway car,” Crichlow told a Straus News reporter who was along for the ride along.

The car was a 1917 specialty car, with old style overhead fans and actual hanging straps, (although on this model the original leather straps were apparently replaced by the more durable hard plastic variety. But you got the idea.) The train featured vinage ads from 1917 and overhead fans to round out the throwback feel.

Fans had been tipped off and were waiting and packed into the car shoulder to shoulder.

As the train neared the 161st St. station for Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, some fans noticed a subway surfer dressed in a costume atop a south bound 4 train that had just left the Yankee Stadium stop.

The motorman on the Yankee Express also noticed the subway surfer and radioed ahead stopping the southbound train. The surfer fled, but an MTA spokesman that an 18 year-old who self identified as a woman was arrested on March 31. The NYPD had yet to return an email seeking more details by press time.

The MTA has been running a public awareness campaign to emphasize the dangers subway surfing after a number of kids have been killed pulling the stunt.

The nostalgia train finished the rest of the trip without incident. Turns out the ride up was only preamble as the Yankees swept the three game series, beating the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 on opening day, followed by a 20-9 pounding of their opponent on March 29 when they hit a record setting nine home runs and finished off the sweep with a 12 to 3 win on Sunday March 30 in which the team hit four more HRs.

NYC Transit has run Yankee Express on opening day for the past several years. A woman named Michelle was on board with her young daughter Lulu and her husband. “It’s amazing,” she said of the vintage car as it pulled out of Grand Central.

But Mets fans, do not despair.

For the first time, the NYC Transit is running a nostalgia train “redbird” 7 train to Citifield, departing from 34 St-Hudson Yards at approximately 12 p.m. on the home opener for the Mets on April 4. The Mets Nostalgia Train will make stops at Times Sq-42 St, 5 Av, Grand Central-42 St, Vernon Blvd-Jackson Av, Hunters Point Av, Court Sq, Queensboro Plaza, 61 St-Woodside, Junction Blvd, and Mets-Willets Point. The ride to Queens is about 35 minutes, getting fans to the stadium with plenty of time before the first pitch at 3:10pm.