After his first visit to NYC in 1969,Rubén Blades wrote the song "El número seis" about waiting for the6 train. He never recorded it, but it was recorded in 1975 by Bobby Rodríguez y la Compañía in 1975, Los Soneros del Barrio in 1999, and Jimmy Sabater with Son Boricua in 2002.
When she was growing up,Jennifer Lopez regularly rode a6 train into Manhattan to go to her dance studio. Her debut 1999 album is calledOn the 6, a reference to the train.
"Take the A Train" is ajazz standard byBilly Strayhorn, referring to theA train, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the express tracks in Manhattan. It became the signature tune ofDuke Ellington and often opened the shows ofElla Fitzgerald. Part of the significance of this is sociological: it connected the two largest Black neighborhoods in New York City,Harlem andBedford-Stuyvesant.
TheA-Train series of Japanese railroad management games is named after this song. The original Japanese title translates to "Take the A Train".
"Cinderella & The "A" Train" is a song byJoe Purdy, and is one of several songs by Purdy about (or with references to) New York City.
A satirical depiction of the C Eighth Avenue Local appears in a full page "Sketchbook" inThe New Yorker by cartoonistRoz Chast, titled "The Legend of the C Train."[1]
RapperJay Z has acknowledged that his moniker is partially a homage to theJ/Z services, which stop atMarcy Avenue, near his childhood home inMarcy Houses.[3]
InTales of the Night Watchman #3 and #4, published by So What? Press, the story "The Dwellers of Big Bogie" takes place predominantly in the subway. A group of spider-like humanoids called Dwellers live in a cave beneath theL train in Williamsburg. It was written by Dave Kelly and illustrated by Amanda Scurti. In #3, Serena is mugged by a Dweller named Taryn while waiting for a train.[4] In #4, Nora chases Taryn into the cave and is captured by its rulers, the maniacal Vera and her husband, the eponymous Big Bogie.[5]
In 2018, Dave Kelly and Simon Fraser began serializing aTales of the Night Watchman strip in thePark Slope Reader, a localBrooklyn paper. The first story, "The Ghost Train", is about the elevated train involved in the infamousMalbone Street Wreck returning to terrorize the city on the centenary of the accident. The story debuted in the paper's Spring 2018 edition, number 64.
Jennifer Lopez's1999 album was calledOn the 6, named after the6 train that she regularly rode while growing up in the Bronx on her way to dance practices in Manhattan, prior to her stardom.[10]
The subway has a fictional station onSesame Street. It also has appeared in some closing sequences ofthe series.[12]
The second half of the 1974The Odd Couple episode "The Subway Story" takes place in a subway train. The episode was filmed on a set.
The entireAll in the Family episode "Mike The Pacifist" (which aired in 1977) takes place on a subway train. A set was constructed atTelevision City in Hollywood, which resembled the interior of a subway train traveling towardQueens.
In the 1987–1989 American television seriesBeauty and the Beast, Vincent (the "Beast"), who lived in tunnels beneath the city (see "Mole People"), rode on top of a subway car to travel surreptitiously around the city.
In the 1993Full House episode "Subterranean Graduation Blues", the entire family rides the subway to Jesse's graduation ceremony. Exterior shots of trains pulling in and out of stations are of the New York City Subway, but the episode takes place in San Francisco.[13]
The fourth episode of the second season ofCourage the Cowardly Dog titledCourage in the Big Stinkin' City features Courage boarding theA train and being chased by a police officer. The train’s operator is scared off the train, which speeds out of control with Courage attempting to steer it, until it crashes intoRadio City Music Hall’s rehearsal room.[14]
The seventh episode ofThe Defenders seesMatt Murdock,Jessica Jones andLuke Cage use the subway to travel to Midland Circle Financial after escaping police custody, however the scenes themselves were actually shot on thePATH train.
The TV showForever uses the subways in three different plots. Thepilot features an investigation into a subway train crash which kills 15 people and protagonist Dr. Henry Morgan.[15] In "Fountain of Youth", Abe tracks one of the NYPD's suspects through the system, prompting Henry and NYPD Detective Jo Martinez to follow him.[16] In "The Last Death of Henry Morgan", Henry and Adam confront each other in one of the abandoned tunnels, which leads to Henry's death, Adam being stabbed in the neck with a needle filled with air, and Jo finding an old photograph which shows Henry appearing unchanged since it was taken.[17]
The second season ofRussian Doll features main character Nadia Vulvokov being transmitted to the past and back through the6 Train. In later episodes, Alan takes the same train and ends up inEast Berlin.[18]
The New York City Subway has been featured prominently in many films.
One of the subway's first color appearances is the1949musicalOn the Town, shot on location. One of the characters takes a fancy to "MissTurnstiles", a "typical rider" whose picture appears in many different poses on advertising placards.[19]
TheWoody Allen filmBananas (also 1971) has a scene in which Woody's character Fielding Melish confronts two muggers (one played by a pre-fameSylvester Stallone) assaulting an old lady by tossing them off the train. As with the above example, this scene was shot on42nd Street Shuttle at Grand Central.
The 1974 filmThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three centers on the hijacking of a southbound6 train. The time of the movie led to the MTA avoiding 1:23 as a departure time for Pelham trains.[26] The film was remade in1998 and2009.
The 1977 filmSaturday Night Fever shows several clips of the subway, most notably Tony's ride on theRR train and several of his walks underneath theWest End El. All of the clips show trains covered ingraffiti, which was a major problem in the subway at the time the movie was filmed.[27]
The1979cult filmThe Warriors focuses on a street gang taking the subway from upper Bronx toConey Island. The film's heavily graffitied cars contrast starkly with today's relatively clean subway system.[28]
In the1984 filmBeat Street, Kenny, his younger brother Lee, and their friends Tracy, Ramon (Ramo), and Luis, are seen hanging out in the subway system, spray-painting an abandoned subway platform. Ramo's rival, Spit, a rogue graffiti artist is also in the subway system defacing Ramo's artwork as well as the artwork of other graffiti artists by tagging his name all over it. The gang took the subway to the Roxy, a dance nightclub. A dance battle between Lee and his break-dancing team and the New York City Breakers breaks out near the subway exit. Ramo, along with Kenny is later shown painting an all white painted subway train he vowed to tag one night when after painting one side of the car and working on the second side, they catch Spit tagging his name on Ramo's recently finished work. A chase ensues leading to an altercation between Ramo and Spit on the roadbed and ended with Ramo and Spit electrocuted on the electrified third rail.
In the climactic scene of1986 filmCrocodile Dundee, Sue follows Mick to a subway station. There, she cannot reach him through the crowd on the platform, but has members of the crowd relay her message to him, whereupon he walks to her on the heads and raised hands of the jubilant crowd and embraces her.[29]
The 1995 filmMoney Train takes place in the subway system, withWesley Snipes,Woody Harrelson, andJennifer Lopez playingNew York City Transit Police officers. The main plot of the film dealt with a plan to hijack the NYCT revenue collection train.[34] The train scenes were filmed in Los Angeles on a specially constructed replica of the New York City Subway system on an old railroad yard adjacent to Chinatown known as "The Cornfield."[35]
In the2000Adam Sandler comedyLittle Nicky, the subway belowGrand Central Terminal possesses a portal to hell. At one point, Sandler's character saves girlfriendPatricia Arquette from an oncoming train by throwing himself onto the tracks in her place; upon dying, he finds himself in heaven.[37]
The Yards (2000) revolves around private subway and commuter railroad contractors and corruption. Several scenes in rail yards are present andMark Wahlberg rides the6 train.[38]
In2004,Spider-Man 2 featured a fight and crash scene betweenSpider-Man andDoctor Octopus on an out-of-control elevatedR train in Manhattan. As the R is not elevated on any portion of the line in real life, the sequence was actually filmed on theChicago 'L' with a train of repainted2200 Series cars (except for a short sequence where Spider-Man is dragged along Broadway at street level, which was filmed beneath the viaduct transporting the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line across Manhattan Valley).
The 2007 filmThe Brave One features a scene where Erica shoots and kills two men on the subway after they attacked the other passengers in the car and took a teenager'siPod. The scene was filmed on the unused express tracks atChurch Avenue.[42]
In the 2009 filmKnowing, a major collision occurs between a6 and a4 train at Lafayette Street station.[43]
In the 2013 filmInside Llewyn Davis, Llewyn enters the 96th Street Station and rides anR32 train to Downtown. In a later scene, he talks on a pay phone at an elevated station platform when anR62A 7 train enters on the other side. Both scenes arehistorically inaccurate as the film is set in 1961 and the R32s and R62As did not enter service until 1964 and 1985, respectively.[44]
In the 2025 filmHighest 2 Lowest, David King goes to Brooklyn'sBorough Hall subway stop, and gets on a train toYankee Stadium as part of an elaborate ransom drop off. Later in the movie, King chases the antagonist Yung Felon on a train bound from 161st street.
In 1993, a 16-year-old boy namedKeron Thomas, who was obsessed with the city's subway system, put on a uniform and successfully impersonated a subwaymotorman. For three hours, he operated anA train along its route, passengers none the wiser, until he rounded a curve too fast and tripped the emergency brakes. He was caught when he was unable to reset them. He received a suspended sentence and a lot of publicity.[48]
