The MTA’s brand new subway cars got a fresh coat of paint this week — but it wasn’t one the transit agency paid for.
Photos obtained by Gothamist show a new subway train made up of cars called R211s covered in graffiti. The photos were taken by someone who said the vandalized train appeared at the Coney Island train yard on Monday.
Graffiti on one train car shows the word “GLOVE” in bubble letters. Another train had the letters “MUL,” an acronym likely for “Made You Look” that’s used by a Chicago-based graffiti crew.
It’s unclear if the Chicago-based group is responsible for the letters on the new R211. The group did not respond to a message on their Instagram account.
The first new R211 train cars rolled out in March on the A line. More are expected to enter service this spring.
They’re equipped with modern signals, wider doors and digital displays. What they don’t have — as exhibited by this week’s hit — are graffiti-proof exteriors.
An MTA spokesperson said the graffiti was first reported at noon on Monday, and the vandalized train was one that's still undergoing testing and has yet to be put into service.
“This type of vandalism is foolish, a waste of taxpayer money that could be spent on service and needlessly removes car equipment workers from other maintenance activities to deal with the nonsense," said Demetrius Crichlow, vice president of subways at NYC Transit.
The MTA in 2018 ordered 535 of the new cars for $1.4 billion. The order included 20 “open gangway” cars, or ones without doors in between them that allow riders to walk the entire length of a train. The agency in October ordered another 640 of the R211s for an additional $1.8 billion.
They’re part of a long delayed effort to replace the subway’s R46 trains, which were first put into service during the graffiti-filled era of the 1970s and 1980s.
MTA officials have, since the late 1980s, directed any graffitied train car to be removed from service for cleaning. But tagging hits are up in recent years. The agency reported 277 graffiti incidents during the first 15 weeks of 2021. The number rose to 489 during the same period of 2022, and the agency reported 457 incidents during the first 15 weeks of this year.
In recent years he MTA has launched initiatives to address the problem, including the testing of technology that automatically detects trespassers on subway tracks.
Two French graffiti writers were found dead on subway tracks in Brooklyn last April. Interviews at the time confirmed that the New York City subway still remains an attractive location for graffiti artists to leave their mark.
This story was updated with a comment from an MTA executive.
