Various logos and graphic representations have been used for NYC transit companies over the years, but the handsomest has been the interlocking “TA” used by the New York City Transit Authority in the unofficial NYC colors of orange and blue, slanted forward to give the impression of traveling at speed.
The NYC Transit Authority was created in 1953 from the old NYC Board of Transportation, which handled the IND, BMT and IRT subway lines after they were unified under one aegis in 1940 and run by the City. The NYCTA then ran the subways, els and bus lines.
In turn, the NYCTA merged with the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MABSTOA) in 1968 to create the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which has used various logotypes employing a large M over the years. None of them can match the old TA logo, however.
ForgottenFan Richard Concepcion: MaBSTOA was created as a non-civil service TA subsidiary (bearing a companion OA logo) to take over Fifth Ave.Coach along with the remaining related private Motor Coach services left in Manhattan and The Bronx in the early 1960’s. The state in 1967 then created the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority to take over the Long Island Railroad from the bankrupt Pennsylvania Railroad. After the passing of the Transportation Bond Issue later that year, accompanying legislation the following year reorganized the MCTA into today’s MTA, placing the TA and MaBSTOA under their state management, along with the TBTA (Triboro Bridge & Tunnel), and in further years, also adding SIRTOA (Staten Island Rapid Transit), Penn Central’s Harlem, Hudson, & New Haven Lines) and the NY portions of the Erie-Lackawana’s Port Jervis and Pascack Valley Lines (today part of Metro North). MSBA buses in Nassau County were also added but spun off several years ago.
Nothing is as simple as it seems.
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