{"id":136115,"date":"2025-08-11T05:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/136115\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T05:00:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T05:00:26","slug":"defunct-non-existent-subway-trains-keep-getting-spotted-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/136115\/","title":{"rendered":"Defunct, non-existent subway trains keep getting spotted in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

This subway mystery has gone off the rails.<\/p>\n

MTA trains have been baffling riders by running with line numbers that have been defunct for decades \u2013 or never even used in the first place.<\/p>\n

A subway train sign displays the never-used green \u201c10\u201d line. Reddit\/nycrail<\/p>\n

Photos on social media show people on trains advertised as being the defunct 9 line \u2014 even more mysteriously \u2014 the 10, 11 and 12 ones, which have never been NYC subway lines.<\/p>\n

And while the MTA confirms that the mystery trains\u2019 manual \u201croll signs\u201d have been altered, it has no idea who is to blame \u2014 whether it\u2019s a series of accidents by MTA workers<\/a>, or pranksters having fun, with some even posting how-to videos online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are regular trains with test signage that may have been temporarily displayed incorrectly,\u201d an MTA rep confirmed to The Post, saying that crews are supposed to check signs before the start of every trip.<\/p>\n

The roll signs for 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 \u201clines\u201d pictured on social media likely \u201cjust got scrolled too far past the current designation,\u201d a spokesperson from the New York Transit Museum said, though experts are \u201cnot sure\u201d if the recent sightings are due to crew errors or were knowingly altered.<\/p>\n

Tampering with MTA signs could result in fines starting at $50. But would-be jokesters risk fines knowing a Big Apple audience will get a hoot out of the stunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cGasp worthy,\u201d one X user dubbed a sighting of a 9 train<\/a> in Manhattan in a now-viral June post.<\/p>\n

Others suggest that it is nothing new, with one commentator writing on a video showing how to change the roll sign: \u201cI remember I used to do that as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

A subway train sign with the incorrect number 13. Reddit\/nycrail<\/p>\n

Experts say there\u2019s a simple reason why unused routes like the 10 through 13 lines are included as possible line numbers in the first place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because \u201cwhen roll signs were still being manufactured, they often included service designations (\u201cbullets\u201d) that could allow for route expansion,\u201d New York Transit Museum curator Jodi Shapiro explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, roll signs for trains that ran on routes of the former IRT (trains that are numbered such as 1, 2, 3) had a green 8 or 10, as well as a purple 11 and a red 13.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGasp worthy,\u201d one X user dubbed a sighting of a 9 train in Manhattan in a now-viral June post. X\/@GusSaltonstall<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to be confused with the BMT lines, which once ran elevated lines also numbered 10 to 16, according to Quartz.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSome of [the numbers] were previously used on BMT routes,\u201d Shapiro acknowledged. \u201cHowever, it looks like the roll signs \u2026 in those photos were all taken on trains running on today\u2019s IRT lines\u201d such as the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that reason, we would speculate that they were printed in case the authority wanted to use them for skip-stop service like the 9 was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other roll signs on lettered trains include unused \u201cP\u201d and \u201cX\u201d service designations, likely in case the MTA ever wished to expand service, Shapiro added.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps the production of roll signs with extra numeric bullets was done to give the Authority some breathing room to make other services of this nature on other routes \u2014 such as having the 10 be a skip-stop on the 6 line, and so on,\u201d Shapiro said. Reddit\/nycrail<\/p>\n

For some New Yorkers, witnessing the red express 9 Broadway-Seventh Avenue line is nothing short of a trip down nostalgia lane, as the 9 train was in service from 1989 to 2005 from Van Cortlandt Park-242nd Street to South Ferry.<\/p>\n

Before that, it was used as a shuttle train in the Bronx from the 1940s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that roll sign felt like stepping into a time warp,\u201d one Redditor wrote of the 9 train.<\/p>\n

Other straphangers, however, hope the flipped signs stay in the past: \u201cIt irritates me every time cuz I grew up on the 9,\u201d another Redditor said, dubbing the express line \u201cstupid and a waste of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s long gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This subway mystery has gone off the rails. MTA trains have been baffling riders by running with line…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5248,9904,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,9907,28714,19614,522,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-136115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-mta","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-life","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-public-transportation","19":"tag-subway","20":"tag-trains","21":"tag-transportation","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115008374428682453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}