Just like the retired 9 train, the old MetroCards, and the days of a $2.50 bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, New York City’s iconic sunset-colored, bucket-shaped subway seats will soon become a thing of the past. To honor this staple of the daily commute, the New York Transit Museum is launching a special exhibition titled “Ode to the Orange Seats,” featuring diverse artwork ranging from oil paintings to tattoo designs.
The elegiac showcase pays tribute to both the warm-hued individual bucket seats and the L-shaped sectional benches designed for conversation, which are slated for retirement by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). As part of its $10.9 billion 2025–2029 capital plan, the MTA will purchase 1,500 new subway cars to modernize the transit system. This move will replace roughly 22% of the current fleet, subsequently phasing out the beloved orange buckets.
The End of an Era for Retro Subway Cars
While the MTA clarifies that the seats themselves are not to blame, the older train models that house them fail about six times more frequently on average than newer models. The specific fleets being retired over the next few years include:
* **R62 Cars:** Primarily used on the 1, 3, and 6 lines.
* **R68 Cars:** Operating across the B, D, N, Q, and W lines.
Manufactured in 1984 and 1986 respectively, these mid-80s transit cars were originally introduced to replace decaying carriages that had been in service since the 1940s.
Art Inspired by Transit Nostalgia
The exhibition, hosted at the museum’s historic location at 99 Schermerhorn St. in Downtown Brooklyn, features unique works from 14 artists exploring themes of deep nostalgia and personal connection:
* **Joshua Franklin:** Showcases tattoo art, capturing how some New Yorkers have permanently inked these seats onto their bodies.
* **VH McKenzie:** Presents intimate oil paintings executed directly onto blocks of cedar wood.
* **Danny Cortes:** A miniature artist who shrinks the iconic orange seating arrangements down to hyper-detailed, pocket-sized models.
* **Akiva Listman:** A native New York artist known for subway prints, contributing a romantic, warm, and glossy depiction of the seating titled “Exactly Where I Should Be.”
> “They’re just an important part of New Yorkers’ lives. They take me to work every day, so they deserve their thanks.”
> — **Akiva Listman**, Contributing Artist
The Great Subway Seat Debate
The exhibit also pays homage to a viral, Bronx-born cultural moment. In 2019, Bronx native Gabriel Bautista posted a photo of a five-seat subway section, numbering the seats one through five, and asked New Yorkers to declare their favorite. The post went viral, sparking fierce debate; seats four and five were affectionately dubbed the “honeymoon suite,” while Bautista remains a staunch advocate for seat number three.
Replicating that viral prompt, the Transit Museum has installed a physical arrangement of those exact five vintage yellow and orange seats, allowing visitors to sit, chat, and defend their personal seating preferences.
Coinciding with this tribute, the museum will simultaneously debut its **“50 Years of Stories”** showcase, pulling quirky historical artifacts from the archives—including early architectural sketches, vintage subway advertisements, and historic station mosaics—aiming to bring a little bit of joy to New Yorkers’ daily commutes.
