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NYC Transit

Old NYC subway photos: Rare images of trains, overcrowding and more

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  • A lone passenger sits in a subway car on the Brighton Beach line in Brooklyn. (June 1, 1964)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Mulvehill
  • A woman waits on an elevated train platform along the Myrtle Avenue line in Brooklyn. Days later, service was discontinued on the elevated portion of the line, which spanned 35 blocks from Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Broadway in Williamsburg. (Sept. 30, 1969)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Harvey Weber
  • A subway entrance at 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. (Nov. 29, 1972)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Jim Nightingale
  • Rail clerk Vera Turner's first duty at midnight was to empty the tokens from the turnstiles at the subway station at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. (Jan 4, 1972)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / George Argeroplos
  • The west end of the mezzanine level of the 71st Avenue Continental IND subway stop in Forest Hills, Queens. (Jan. 4, 1975)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Jim Peppler
  • Looking east toward Queens, one of the pilot tunnels under 63rd Street near Park Avenue used as
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Dan Neville
  • Idle trains sitting in the transit yard on Roosevelt Avenue near Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens. (April 1, 1980)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Dan Neville
  • A lone woman sitting on the eastbound platform waits for a train at the Roosevelt Avenue and 74th Street subway station in Woodside, Queens. (June 1, 1981)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Dan Neville
  • Workers on the tracks, installing a new switch in a tunnel in the vicinity of Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. (Oct. 25, 1983)
    Photo Credit: Newsday
  • Commuters wait on the platform as a train pulls into the Main Street Flushing subway station. (Jan. 20, 1982)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan
  • Commuters take advantage of the free subway fare just hours before midnight on New Year's Eve in a Times Square subway station. (Dec. 31, 1985)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Ken Sawchuk
  • A general view of the IRT overhead on Roosevelt Avenue, near the corner of 83rd Street in Queens. (May 20, 1985)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Bill Senft
  • A view of the No. 7 train at the Willetts Point subway station in Flushing, Queens. (May 9, 1985)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Ozier Muhammad
  • A downtown passenger deliberates over his Ten-Pak as he prepares to pay the new $1 fare during the morning rush hour at the West 72nd Street and Broadway IRT station. (Jan. 2, 1986)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Ari Mintz
  • A commuter goes through the turnstile at the 179th Street IND station. (Jan. 19, 1987)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Richard Lee
  • Graffiti mars the old No. 1 train on the Broadway line as it comes into the South Ferry subway station. (Nov. 22, 1985)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Jim Cummins
  • Riders cram into a subway car on the E and F lines at the Third Avenue and 53rd Street station. (Sept. 9, 1987)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Bruce Gilbert
  • Mothers, some with toddlers in tow, entering the subway station at City Hall on the N and R lines in protest over a ban on strollers. (May 25, 1990)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Jim Cummins
  • Ellen Hart Strum, center, former Miss Subways March 1959, hosted a Miss Subways reunion at her restaurant, Uptown, at 56th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Pictured to the left of Strum is Heide Hafner, the last Miss Subways (Sept. 1976), and pictured to her right is Edith Fagan, the earliest Miss Subways present at this reunion (March 1943). (May 13, 1991)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Ozier Muhammad
  • A barge tows refurbished subway cars across lower New York Harbor toward Brooklyn at dusk. According to the Transit Authority Public Affairs Office, the subway cars are refurbished in Hornell, New York, then shipped back from the western part of the state to Manhattan, the last leg by barge across the Harbor. These cars were newly refurbished and ready to be put into service. (May 1, 1991)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Nanine Hartzenbusch
  • A crowded subway platform on the downtown side of the 72nd Street station during the morning rush hour. (May 22, 1992)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Ken Sawchuk
  • Passengers exiting the subway. (Oct. 31, 1991)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Erica Berger
  • A Manhattan-bound L train enters the
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Jonathan Fine
  • The old token went from $1.15 to $1.25 per ride at midnight on New Year's Day in 1992. (Dec. 31, 1991)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Susan Farley
  • A graffiti-laden subway station on Dean Street near Franklin Street in Brooklyn, which serves the Franklin Street shuttle. (May 10, 1993)
    Photo Credit: Newsday / Phillip Davies

The days of graffiti-covered subway cars may be long gone, but today’s experience of riding the rails may not be so different from decades past.

As these rarely seen images show, yesterday’s commuters also fought overcrowded platforms, pushed their way onto trains before the doors closed and had lonely waits on the platform before the next train to arrive.

The images are from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. And the more you look, the more you’ll see echoes of your own present-day experience with the subway system. Whether that’s cause for lament is another point entirely.

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