Gothamist teased us with the promise of brand-new N trains back in August, but I guess the "one-month trial" took a bit longer than the MTA (or nycsubway.org, for that matter) expected.

Today was my first time even seeing a shiny new R160—not to mention actually riding in it. I must have gasped audibly in surprise when it came into the station, but all of my fellow passengers looked so blasé that I was too embarrassed to whip out my real camera and had to settle for this very low-quality camera phone pic (not that pictures I take with other people's nice new cameras turn out any better, but hey).

The fresh-off-the rack N trains are a lot like the current 4/5/6 and 2/3 trains, but with a much flashier LED display that customizes itself according to the actual route of the train instead of being pre-set to the "standard" route and contains a weird video inset which claimed (I think?) that the R160s somehow offer a "smoother ride" than the old trains. They also have this eerily soothing female voice announcing the stops instead of the automaton man who barks at me every morning the 6.

I just hope an R160 takes me in the other direction tomorrow morning. When my N pulled into 59th Street/Lexington, the old-school train headed downtown across the platform looked very sad and dingy indeed.