“City Hall was meant to be a showpiece,” notes Shapiro, but by the time of the IND, the system needed to be more utilitarian and cost-effective. The city-owned IND opened during the Great Depression, meaning the expensive ornamentation found in the stations of the former two systems just simply couldn’t be afforded. Vickers had worked with architects Heins and Lafarge on IRT and BMT stations. The IND stations have a minimalist aesthetic compared to the ornate IRT and BMT stations. Image courtesy of New York Transit Museum. You can see the assignment of station colors in the chart below, and compare them to the Pantone colors used in today’s station which can be found on the MTA website. At Union Turnpike, the station colors change to yellow. At the next express stop, Forest Hills-71 Ave., the color changes green and all subsequent local stops are light green until the express stop at Union Turnpike- Kew Gardens. The next five stations are all local, so they are a lighter shade of blue. Next, Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave., an express station. The next stop is 65th Street, another local stop, so it is also purple. Let’s say you are in Queens riding west from Northern Boulevard which is purple. “There isn’t anything that we were able to find that says definitively ‘This is the reason why we are doing that,” notes Shapiro, “It does make sense, and that’s part of the reason for the iconography used in the IRT stations and BMT stations.” Though there is no known document where Vickers explains himself yet, “It might be out there,” says Shapiro, “There may be some diaries of his that we don’t have where he runs down that logic. One popular theory is that the colors helped non-English speaking riders, or people who couldn’t read at all, navigate the system. New York Transit Museum curator Jodi Shapiro says it is one of the most common questions she gets asked. Vickers chose the color-coordinated system he employed. There is no definitive answer as to why IND architect Squire J. Just as in the IRT Stations, the BMT stations boasts fanciful ornamentation. The BMT also used numbers to identify their routes, even going into double digits. For example, at the Wall Street station, the mosaics depict the old wall erected at the northern border of Dutch New Amsterdam, at Columbus Circle, you see mosaics of ships Christopher Columbus sailed on. The unique mosaics at each stop related to the history or landmarks of the ground above. These mosaics, notes New York City Transit Museum curator Jodi Shapiro, may have been a piece of wayfinding in the IRT system. The design of the stations by architects Heins and Lafarge under the direction of chief engineer William Barclay Parsons incorporated elaborate ornamentation including intricate terra-cotta mosaics. The IRT used numbers to identify their lines, many of which have stayed the same to this day. Before the systems were merged, each had their own wayfinding and identification systems. Each of these systems operated independently of each other until 1940 when the city took over operations of all lines. The Independent Subway, the first city-owned system, opened in 1932. The Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Cooperation came along in 1923 after acquiring the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). The first stop was the now-abandoned City Hall Station. As of May 2020, the R142 operates on the 2, 4, and 5 lines, the R142A operates on the 4 line, and the R188 operates on the 7 line.The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the first subway system to open in New York City in 1904. The R188 cars entered service for revenue testing on Novemand officially entered service on December 15, 2013. The new cars included 38 new "C" cars that would be added to some 5 car sets of R142As to be able to continue running 11 car trains on the 7 line. The R188 would be equipped with CBTC equipment for use on the 7 line, the first A Division line to have CBTC train signalling installed. In 2010, the R188 contract was awarded to Kawasaki to convert 380 R142A cars in to R188 cars and build an additional 126 new R188 cars. The R142 and R142A cars featured LED and LCD destination signs, electronic strip maps, interior LED displays to show the next stop and other information, automated announcements, enhanced fluorescent lighting for the train interiors, and screens in each operator cab allowing the train crew to troubleshoot issues more easily. Both car types replaced the "Redbird" fleet (R26, R28, R29, R33, and R36 cars) that had been in service since the late 1950s. The R142 cars were built by Bombardier and the R142A cars were built by Kawasaki. These cars were based off the R110A prototype cars that operated between 19. Both car classes entered service on July 10, 2000. The R142 and R142A were the first "New Technology Train" production models to enter service on the A Division and on the entire New York City Subway.
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