Transit Logos

What does everyone think of the logos the transit authority has had over the years?

The TA logo was nice, but before my time. You rarely, if ever, can see this around anymore.

The "M" is my favorite logo. I think it just fits the subway system well and is still all over (many lighted "M" cubes are located at the entrances of stations). I have always liked the two-tone color of the M and the font that spelled out "NEW YORK CITY" and "TRANSIT".

The MTA (Pac-Man) logo is my least favorite because it does not even say New York on it.

I wonder if there will be a new logo coming out in the future?

I also like the Pac-Man logo, I think's it's very professional!

I like the "M" logo, I think it's a "do all" logo that you can have customized for the different divisions of the MTA yet still keep uniformity that you have with the "Pacman" logo.

IMHO the "TA" logo was ugly...I don't like it at all. I think the logos should be unique to the transit systems and the "TA" simply does not ring out "uniqueness" like the other logos.

I'm not a big fan of the "Pacman" logo but I think it works well enough...not as good as the "M" but surely much better than the "TA"...

IMHO the "TA" logo was ugly...I don't like it at all. I think the logos should be unique to the transit systems and the "TA" simply does not ring out "uniqueness" like the other logos.

Yeah, I'm down with you, I didn't like that late 1960's-early 70s logo either. Even though the lowercase "t" looked more like our hometown logo from a distance bit with a red "t" against a silver background.

I like the "TA" logo from the 60's & 70's and the two-tone "M" logo. I think the "Pacman" logo is okay, but not that great.

It looked great on the M1's in the 70's and I fell in love with it the first time I saw it and thats the good ole two-tone M. Who remembers the bicentennial M from 76? And the stars and stripes on the R46's? http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?24698 The pacman logo doesnt work for me. You have cars running from the 60's and 70's with a "futuristic" looking logo, it just doesnt look right. On the R142/143 it looks fine.

I liked the intertwined t/a logo, but the two-tone M logo was easier to apply across the system. Made the subway more of a "metro" in my opinion. The white M in a circle was never uniformly applied enough to be "official."



The current pac-man logo has no redeeming quality whatsoever. It is hard to read, does not connect visually with the system, and overall, just looked "forced." In synopsis, pac-man: bad; two-tone M: good; TA logo: ok.

Otto,

Remember, unification wasn't important to the MTA until the mid-1990's, and things they recieved then did get the M logo, see here, the R-110B did wear it:

http://nycsubway.org/perl/show?17693

--JSW

For sure! I would say that the circle-M was the least uniformly applied... I kinda liked it when the MTA was a rag tag of different logos and styles... but then I kind of admire how systems like MBTA, NJT, and SEPTA have managed to apply one singular branding to their rail, bus, and transit lines. No matter where you are, you are riding the T, NJT, or SEPTA... not MTA Bus, MTA Long Island Bus, MTA Surface, MTA New York City Subway, MTA LIRR, MTA B&T, etc etc etc... gagh!

-otto-

Boston isn't really a good example since the MTA is doing exactly what the MBTA did back in 1967, each entity under one banner(in Boston's case, the "T") while each operation retaining it's uniqueness(Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Silver lines). A subway car with the logo "MTA New York City Subway" is no different than an MBTA "T" with a blue or red or orange or green line under it.

When was there the M central logo, and where was it used? (BTW, maybe because of my age, my favorite logo would be the TA, followed by the M, and then the Pac-Man logo.)

"M-Central" was specifically used on the Hudson and Harlem Lines out of Grand Central, between 1970 and until the start of Metro-North in 1983. The two-tone M was used throughout the transit and commuter lines the 1970s and early 1980s. I think we talked about this before, but I think these were all the variations of two-tone M...

- CENTRAL
- NEW HAVEN
- LONG ISLAND
- STATEN ISLAND
- TRANSIT
- SURFACE
- METROPOLITAN
and of course - BICENTENNIAL

others?

-otto-