The Nostalgia Train will ferry straphangers from Grand Central to Yankee Stadium tonight. (Photo via MTA)
Another baseball post-season, another playoff appearance for our own New York Yankees. With the club’s 16th playoff berth over the past 17 seasons, the MTA is once again rolling out the Nostalgia Train for a timeless jaunt up to the Bronx. It’s become an annual tradition and one that attracts Yankee fanatics and railfans alike.
Tonght’s Nostalgia Train will be departing from the uptown express tracks at Grand Central at 7:15 sharp. It will stop at 59th, 86th, 125th, 138th and 149th Streets before arriving at Yankee Stadium. Transit will do it again tomorrow before Game 2 and ahead of Game 5 on Wednesday if the Yankees’ series with the Detroit Tigers makes it that far. This year’s Nostalgia Train consists of cars originally operated by the old Interborough Rapid Transit company from 1917 into the early 1960s. Be forewarned though: These vintage cars aren’t air conditioned.
10 comments
A little bit off topic:
Why was the 3rd Ave line torn down in the Bronx? It had rail connections to the 2 train, and could have served as another branch in the Bronx? It seems to me that the area between the D train the 2 train is hard to reach without a subway.
When the MTA took over operations from NYCTA in May of 1968, one of the main things they didn’t want to spend money on was upgrading aging elevated structures with no connection directly to the Manhattan trunk lines. That’s why the Third Avenue el in the Bronx, the Myrtle Ave. el south of Broadway in Brooklyn and the Culver shuttle were eliminated (the TA had been starving all three of those lines do death since the 1950s, but the elected city officials didn’t want to be the ones who pulled the trigger, once the MTA took over, anyone angry about the closings could be directed towards William Ronan’s office).
And now the replacement Bx55 is floundering after the 2010 service reductions and Bx55s are slowly being converted into Bx15s.
Related to Yankee Stadium and transportation, this might be ripe for discussion at RAB, Ben: the local pols propose to redevelop a former municipal garage south of Yankee Stadium into a hotel. Transportation access-wise, it’s a good location, but isn’t the neighborhood shady?
You start somewhere. The neighborhood around Wrigley Field was “shady” in the 1980s. Now it’s some of the nicest areas on the North Side. The area where the Verizon Center in DC is was more than a little shady. It’s now home to high priced condos, restaurants, and art galleries. The area around Nationals Park in DC was also “shady” and now is the center of an entire redeveloped area with beautiful parks, new condos, restaurants, etc. Not sure why the area of the Bronx should be any different. Start bringing in destination and anchors like hotels and stadiums and you begin to develop a district. There should of course be a plan for this. Not sure if there is though.
Two words: Meatpacking District. Once the shadiest part of Manhattan south of 125th St, now you can’t afford to live there. A few hotels springing up in sketchy n’hoods can do wonders. Remember when the Milford Plaza opened on 8th Ave and 44th St in the early ’80s? Everyone was laughing at Milstein for opening a hotel in such a low-rent, porno theatre-infested part of town. Who’s laughing now?
At least the Milford Plaza was (is) located in walking distance to the Broadway theaters and other tourist attractions. The Bronx location, by contrast, doesn’t have as many walkable attractions. I don’t doubt that a hotel could be successful there. If I was marketing the hotel, I’d emphasize YS, nearby colleges (e.g. Hostos, CCNY, Columbia, Lehman, Fordham), closeness to LaGuardia Airport, Harlem, Randalls Island, Washington Heights, the Bronx Zoo and the NY Botanical Garden, and easy public transportation access. But the free market of hotels has largely decided Midtown Manhattan is the location of choice.
Christopher, a hotel could be the anchor for a redevelopment, sure, but I’d believe cultural/tourist attractions would be stronger and have a longer lasting impact. If redevelopment happened on a larger scale, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bronx residents are not desirable of the tactics used to develop Willets Point and Atlantic Yards in their neighborhood.
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Any word on if there will be nostalgia game before tomorrow’s (Sunday’s) 3pm rescheduled Game 2, and if so, when it will be leaving GCT?
“Nostalgia train,” not “nostalgia game.” Every game is a nostalgia game, IN THE FUTURE.