The MTA’s 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 consisting of cars called R211 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 a train car shows the word “GLOVE” in bubble letters. Another train had the letters “MUL,” an acronym likely meaning “Made You Look” used by a Chicago-based graffiti crew.
It is not clear whether the Chicago-based group is responsible for the letters of the new R211. The group did not respond to any messages on their Instagram account.
The first new R211 carriages rolled out in March on Line A. More are expected to enter service this spring.
They are equipped with modern signs, wider doors and digital displays. What they don’t have, as this week’s success shows, are graffiti-proof exteriors.
An MTA spokesman said the graffiti was first reported at noon Monday and that the vandalized train was one that was still being tested and had not yet been put into service.
“This type of vandalism is silly, a waste of taxpayer dollars that could be spent on service, and it unnecessarily takes auto equipment workers away from other maintenance activities to deal with nonsense,” said Demetrius Crichlow , vice president of subways at NYC Transit.
In 2018, the MTA ordered 535 new cars for $1.4 billion. The order included 20 “open gangway” cars, or without doors between them, which allow drivers to walk the entire length of a train. The agency in October ordered another 640 R211s for an additional $1.8 billion.
They are part of a long-delayed effort to replace the subway’s R46 trains, which first entered service during the graffiti-filled era of the 1970s and 1980s.
MTA officials since the late 1980s have ordered any train car with graffiti to be removed from service for cleaning. But tagging successes have increased in recent years. The agency reported 277 incidents of graffiti in the first 15 weeks of 2021. That number rose to 489 during the same period in 2022, and the agency reported 457 incidents in the first 15 weeks of this year.
In recent years, the MTA has launched initiatives to address the problem, including testing technology that automatically detects trespassers on subway tracks.
Two French graffiti writers were found dead on the Brooklyn subway tracks last April. Interviews at the time confirmed that the New York subway remains an attractive place for graffiti artists to make their mark.
This story was updated with a comment from an MTA executive.
