When the old maroon-hued subway cars left Times Square on Monday on their final run to Willets Point in Queens, the passengers included -- or so it seemed -- every former teenage oddball who ever rode up front, watching the onrushing tracks with nose pressed to the glass.
There also were the city's two top transit executives, public affairs aides, a small army of television and print journalists, uniformed subway employees and even some regular commuters, puzzled by the sudden hoopla on the No. 7 platform.