For One Day, the Second Avenue Subway Is Real (Sort of)

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Image: Flickr, Kevin Prichard

By Adario Strange2014-04-01 20:29:45 UTC

The app-powered car service Uber kicked off April Fools' day with a unique promotion that simultaneously pokes fun at a long-standing New York City project and offers a sweet deal for those looking to try the service out.

For one day only, Uber is offering rides up and down Second Avenue for just $2.50, as part of what it calls its U Train special, a deal that highlights the decades-long wait New Yorkers have endured for a subway service on Manhattan's far East Side.

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"This is an April Fools' joke, but the promotion is real," a spokesperson for Uber told Mashable. "This was another way to show how Uber is redefining transit, as the most reliable and affordable ride in town."

The promotion allows anyone in the area to travel up and down Second Ave., from Houston Street to 128th Street, until 11:59 p.m. ET.

Image: Uber

Currently, when you open the app you'll find a new "U Train" transportation button option when you move your pick-up location to Second Avenue on the map. And, as an added interface design treat, the car icons automatically change from automobiles into subway cars when you move your location to Second Avenue.

The still-unrealized promise of a Second Avenue subway was immortalized in an episode of Mad Men last year when a real estate agent promised Peggy Olson that an Upper East Side apartment would soon be served by a Second Avenue subway line. That fictional 1968 conversation is a refection of a very real conversation that has frustrated New Yorkers for years.

New York City's struggle to bring a subway line to the Upper East Side has started and stopped since 1929, with the latest city project promising to deliver a subway line to the area in 2016.

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Topics: apps, Apps and Software, Mobile, new york city, software, Tech, transportation, Travel & Leisure, uber, U.S.