NYC is getting rid of the best seats on the Subway

The MTA is swapping out its beloved retro models with orange and yellow bucket seats for sterile new cars. Not everyone is happy.

This week, the MTA announced plans to order 435 more of the high-tech R211 trains—the ones with security cameras, brighter lights, more standing room, and those station-responsive digital maps over the extra-wide doors—that hit the tracks earlier this year. This new rolling stock will replace the R44, R46, and R68 models, which have been around since the 1970s and 1980s and are known for their charming orange and yellow bucket seats arranged in an L shape. (And for breaking down at twice the rate of their newer counterparts.)