CityMetric Advent 7: All aboard New York's holiday nostalgia train

We all have our own Christmas traditions. Champagne with breakfast; exchanging gifts on Christmas eve; carols at the local church. For the good people of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, Christmas is a time to dig out old trains with retro advertising, for their annual “holiday nostalgia train”.

These subway cars run on the M line every Sunday from Thanksgiving to the end of December. For the rail buffs out there, the trains are R1 and R9 models and were in service between 1932 and 1977.

Here’s a video of the nostalgia train in action:

And here’s a shot of the interior:

Image: MTA.

We hear some travellers rock up in period outfits for a truly authentic experience. Of course, this has the potential to be a little disconcerting if you fall asleep mid-journey and wake up to find yourself in 1940s New York, complete with “Food Will Win the War” public information posters.

This article is from the CityMetric archive: some formatting and images may not be present.

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