3. Money Cars

The MTA’s special armored money train, which ran from 2006 to 1951.

From 1951 to 2006, a special armored train moved all the subway and bus fares collected by the New York City transit system to a secret room at 370 Jay Street in Brooklyn. Most money cars were refurbished passenger cars; in 1988, transit authorities converted ten sets of R21 and R22 cars into money trains. Six nights of the week, the money trains would collect revenue from 25 to 40 stations at a time, carrying revenue in one car and 12 collecting agents and a supervisor, all armed and wearing body armor, in another. 

Brooklyn Subway Tour

Nevins street platform

The collected money was delivered to the Department of Revenue’s Money Room, hidden inside a 13-story building containing security systems, tunnels, and a secret elevator used to transport money. The disappearance of the subway token and the arrival of the Metrocard made the revenue trains obsolete. The money trains’ final trip took place in January 2006, and the Money Room closed the same day. Revenue collection was relocated to Maspeth, Queens.