Submitted by Michael Pompili, Jan 29, 2007 09:23

I'm not sure where anyone would get the idea that the "numbered" lines are continually favored over the "lettered" lines for technology. For one, the entire fleet of 1964-vintage cars Mr. Seaton references are constructed entirely of stainless steel and were extensively rebuilt between 1988 and 1990. Meanwhile, the cars that were replaced on the "numbered" lines five years ago dated back as far as 1958 and received less extensive rebuilding in the early 1980s. Some of them weren't even air-conditioned! On top of that, their corroding LAHT-steel bodies were literally turning into dust. How soon we forget!

Let's not also disregard the new car deliveries of the past. The aforementioned "number" cars that were retired five years ago arrived between 1958 and 1964. Subsequently, the "lettered" lines got shiny new stainless steel cars in 1964 and '67. Then the sleek, Raymond Loewy-designed slant-front cars came in 1968 - half of them with air conditioning! More new cars in 1970. Then the first "new technology trains," the R-44 and R-46 models still seen today on the A, E, F, G, and R lines, arrived between 1971 and '76. There was no new-car smell on the "numbered" lines until 1983, a wait of almost twenty years. Also, because the "new technology" proved to be disastrous, it was back to old-tech for those cars.

The lettered lines, meanwhile, were given more new cars in 1986 and '88.

Looking beyond new car deliveries, "lettered" line riders have even fewer reasons to cry poor. A new subway tunnel opened under Chrystie Street in 1967, linking the Sixth Avenue line with the Manhattan Bridge. The following year, the Sixth Avenue express tracks opened, as did a new station at 57th Street. In 1988, the E, J, and Z got a new subway tunnel under Archer Avenue, and the Q slithered beneatg 63rd Street and under the East River to Queensbridge for the first time in '89. That tunnel was pushed through to Queens Boulevard in 2001, two years after the rebuilding of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle from the ground up.

The last service expansion on the "numbered" lines, you ask? The addition of express platforms at Lexington Avenue & 59th Street in 1962. A "numbered" line hasn't been extended since 1940, when what is now the 5 train assumed the route of the old New York, Westchester, & Boston commuter rail south of Dyre Avenue.

Of course, this debate is pure silliness. It's all one system, and, like Mets and Yankees fans, we're all New Yorkers. One would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't relied on both a "numbered" and a "lettered" line at some point in his or her life. Still, I suppose one has to pledge allegiance to one's home line - which is why I'll always root for the poor little 4 train in Yankee Stadium's Subway Race.

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