New Face of N.Y. Subways Crowned

Ms. Subways rides again.

For the first time in 28 years, the city’s 220-mile underground rail network has a human face, that of Caroline Sanchez-Bernat. The 29-year-old actress edged out three other contenders Monday for the title of Ms. Subways, a promotion revived for the transit system’s centennial celebration this week.

Sanchez-Bernat was crowned with a tiara and sash at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, owned by Ellen Hart Strum, a 1959 Miss Subways.

The new winner’s photo will be posted in the subway, as were those of the hundreds of women who held the title between 1941 and 1976.

“Having the former Miss Subways here shows the love that New Yorkers have for their subway system,” said Peter Kalikow, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

On Wednesday, the new Ms. Subways will take part in a 100th anniversary reenactment of the New York subway’s inaugural trip, from City Hall to Harlem. She will appear in transit-system advertising and gets to ride free for a year.

After the promotion was announced by the MTA and the New York Post in the summer, Sanchez-Bernat said she submitted her picture “on a total whim” at the urging of friends. She also wrote a required essay, which took note of how the subway system reflects the city’s diversity.

And she had subway performance experience, as a member of “an improvisational project on the A train” that she said was featured in the New York Times.

One of the three other finalists missed the crowning ceremony. She was delayed on the subway.