The brand new-look trains rolling on a few of the lettered subway strains supply a glimpse into the fleet of the longer term.
With wider doorways, brighter interiors and superior cameras, the automobiles often known as R211s can now be seen on the A, C and G strains.
As a part of the MTA’s proposed $68.4 billion five-year capital plan, the transit company needs to purchase 1,500 extra new automobiles — changing a fifth of all the fleet and aligning with its subsequent wave of sign upgrades.
They might ultimately take over for a lot of of these acquainted orange-and-red-seat rides that had been manufactured near half a century in the past, and which officers say are five-and-a-half occasions extra prone to endure mechanical failures that may delay commutes.
“Investing in safe, reliable and modern train cars is the key to building New Yorkers’ trust in the long term,” Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Development & Improvement, mentioned in a press release to THE CITY. “The new capital plan makes a generational investment in rolling stock that will completely transform the riding experience for our customers.”
The proposed $7.6 billion allotment for brand spanking new subway automobiles accounts for the second-largest chunk of New York Metropolis Transit’s share of the 2025-2029 capital plan, whose funding stays in query. Solely the $11.9 billion marked for station upgrades — which incorporates increasing the variety of stops absolutely accessible to individuals with disabilities — is larger.
Not for the reason that first capital plan in 1982-1986, when the MTA purchased 1,575 new subway automobiles to assist convey the system again from the brink of collapse, has the company’s blueprint for the longer term teed up such a large one-time funding within the autos that now transfer near 4 tens of millions riders every day.
“Those subway cars are past their useful life,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and CEO mentioned final fall on the unveiling of the capital plan. “They need to be retired.”
Wish to know far more concerning the largest subway automotive fleet within the nation and its ongoing overhaul? Right here’s a rundown to get you on monitor.
What number of totally different prepare automobiles are within the subway fleet — and why aren’t they uniform?
New York Metropolis Transit presently has 6,712 automobiles in passenger service, with 15 totally different fashions on its numbered strains (known as the A Division) and lettered strains (the B Division).
There’s a giant distinction between the automobiles and tracks on the 2 divisions — a product of the subway system’s origins within the early a part of the final century.
First there was the privately owned Interborough Speedy Transit Firm (IRT) on what at the moment are the numbered strains and the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company (BMT) on what at the moment are lots of the lettered strains. Later, the city-owned Unbiased Subway System (IND) included the lettered Sixth and Eighth Avenue strains in addition to the Brooklyn-Queen Crosstown Line that carries G prepare riders.
Automobiles on the numbered (A Division) strains are shorter and narrower as a result of tunnels alongside these routes are smaller, with tighter turns. On common, they’re additionally older, in keeping with the MTA, with a imply age of 28.4 years
The bigger tunnels on the lettered strains (B Division) are in a position to accommodate longer and wider subway automobiles, which have a median age of 23.34 years.
The width between the rails that trains from the 2 divisions run on differs, too, which means that automobiles on the numbered strains can not function on the lettered strains and vice versa.
Of the hoped-for bulk subway automotive buy within the subsequent capital plan, 1,140 can be for the numbered strains, with 355 for the lettered strains, with others introduced in for “additional rolling stock support.”
Aren’t we already commuting on new prepare automobiles?
Sure — and that’s simply the beginning of issues, or so the MTA hopes.
Again in 2023, new automobiles started operating on the A and C strains, because the transit company rolled out its first new subway automobiles in 5 years. They’re those whose wider doorways flash inexperienced lights once they open as trains pull as much as platforms — and purple lights simply earlier than the doorways shut.
In addition they only recently started operating on the G line and the Staten Island Railway.
The high-tech R211 automobiles designed and engineered by Kawasaki Railcar Manufacturing Inc. are half of what is going to ultimately be a complete of 1,610 new automobiles that had been bought for $4.5 billion over the course of two capital packages — the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 plans.
To this point, the Japanese producer has delivered 475 of these R211 automobiles to New York Metropolis Transit after operating into provide chain-driven delays throughout the pandemic. The MTA and Kawasaki are aiming for the complete order — which is able to embody 80 extra open-gangway variations of the R211s — to be accomplished by 2028.
The place do these new trains come from?
This newest batch was born in Nebraska — with components from throughout.
However closing meeting and methods testing of the R211 automobiles takes place simply north of the town in Yonkers at Kawasaki’s 250,000 square-foot railcar manufacturing plant, which was as soon as dwelling to the Otis Elevator Firm.
Opened in 1986, the sprawling Yonkers plant has been the final cease earlier than passenger service for greater than 5,000 railcars ordered by U.S. transit businesses, together with the Washington Metropolitan Space Transit Authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s PATH service.
In terms of prepare automobiles, the MTA has been a constant Kawasaki buyer. Since its 1982-1986 capital plan, the transit company has ordered greater than 4,600 subway, Lengthy Island Rail Street and Metro-North Railroad trains automobiles for all however certainly one of its 10 five-year plans.
“Without the capital programs, this facility probably wouldn’t exist,” Maurice Andriani, Kawasaki’s vp for enterprise improvement in North America, instructed THE CITY. “And our Lincoln [Nebraska] facility probably wouldn’t have been established.”
Earlier than the R211, the New York Metropolis subway automobiles most just lately assembled by Kawasaki had been the R188 automobiles that run on the No. 7 line between Queens and Manhattan. They started going into passenger service in late 2013, because the No. 7 line underwent a years-long improve to its indicators.
The brand new automobiles are transported from Nebraska to Yonkers on wide-load flatbed vehicles and arrive about 90% full — containing roughly 10,000 elements from suppliers far and broad and nearly 20 miles of wire in every automotive.
“It’s a space shuttle,” Andriani mentioned.
Every R211 automotive is outfitted with components that embody poles from Pennsylvania and seats from Canada. After arriving, they’re related to kind five-car trains for weeks of stationary exams atop a number of elevated tracks contained in the manufacturing unit.
“They’re going underneath the cars, they’re opening up equipment boxes, they’re hooking up instrumentation to check for various things and make sure the equipment is working correctly,” mentioned Nehru Satahoo, senior supervisor of manufacturing engineering at Kawasaki Rail Automotive. “So there’s a lot of work underneath as well as in the interior.”
That’s adopted by extra evaluation on take a look at tracks proper outdoors the manufacturing unit.
As soon as the brand new automobiles move muster in Yonkers, they’re delivered to the MTA for much more trial runs earlier than ultimately going into passenger service.
Commuters experience in a brand new open-gangway G prepare in Brooklyn, March, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
With wider (by 8 inches) doorways, geared up with a number of cameras and in depth digital shows on each automotive, brighter interiors and flip-up seating, the R211 automobiles and all future fashions should be suitable with the trendy sign system that the MTA is putting in alongside extra subway strains.
Generally known as “communication based train control” or CBTC, revamped indicators will enable trains to run extra ceaselessly and nearer collectively and have been a prime precedence in the latest MTA capital plans.
An previous R46 prepare on the W line at Metropolis Corridor, March 31, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The R62 automobiles on the No. 1 line have been operating for the reason that Reagan administration, April 2, 2025. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
The remaining R68 automobiles from the mid-80s are in line for retirement if the MTA secures billions in capital funding. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
The R142 automobiles on the two, 4 and 5 strains first went into service in 2000. April 4, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
An R143 automotive on the L line, the primary within the subway with fashionable indicators. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
An R160A automotive pulls into the Metropolis Corridor station, April 2, 2025. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
Technicians examine doorways on a R179 automotive in Jan. 2020 after defective doorways brought on MTA to quickly pull 300 out of service., Jan. 9, 2020. Credit score: Marc A. Hermann/MTA New York Metropolis Transit
The R179 automobiles, manufactured by Bombardier, started operating in 2017 Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
A Kawasaki-manufactured R188 prepare runs on the 7 line, April 2, 2025. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
The most recent automobiles within the subway, often known as the R211, characteristic flip-up seating designated for riders with disabilities. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
Rising the provision of recent prepare automobiles is central to high-tech efforts to replace indicators and enhance service.
“You need new cars to be able to [work with] CBTC,” Tim Mulligan, the MTA’s chief of rolling inventory program, instructed THE CITY. “So this is really part and parcel with signal modernization, which is a big thrust of the last plan and this plan as well.
“You have to have the cars to be able to do that.”
What are the oldest subway automobiles within the system, and when will they be retired?
The subway’s longest-running automobiles are the orange-seated R46s and also you’ll solely see them on just a few strains: the A, C, N, Q, R and W strains and alongside the Rockaway Park Shuttle.
Constructed between 1975 and 1978, some have been in service occurring 5 a long time. There are tons of nonetheless rattling alongside the rails.
There have been 752 such automobiles in service when the 2025-2029 plan was unveiled final fall, although the MTA says most of these have outlived their anticipated helpful lifetime of greater than 40 years.
The Staten Island Railway has automobiles which have been round even longer, the R44 fashions that had been constructed between 1971-73.
The oldest within the subway and on Staten Island are within the strategy of being retired and progressively changed by R211 automobiles.
If the MTA receives the funding wanted for its 2025-2029 plan, automobiles which have been in service for the reason that days of the Reagan Administration can be subsequent to go. These embody the R62s, which rolled out in 1984 and nonetheless run alongside the 1, 3 and 6 strains. The remaining R68 fashions from 1986, which function totally on the B, D, N and W strains, would even be retired.
In case you’re curious, the “R” within the names stands for “CAR equipment” throughout the MTA. Why? In response to the company, “C” was already used for “construction” and “A” was designated for “stations.” As for “S,” it’s used for “signals.”
The place do subway automobiles go to die?
Most are scrapped, whereas some are preserved for historic and academic functions. The New York Transit Museum, housed in a decommissioned station in Downtown Brooklyn, has a number of retired automobiles which are a part of its classic fleet and that are sometimes introduced out for nostalgia rides.
Different retired automobiles are additionally utilized in emergency response coaching or transformed into work trains which are used to clear tracks of snow and ice or to move particles out of the system.
However previous subway automobiles are not dropped into the Atlantic Ocean for a watery retirement. Between August 2001 and April 2010, the shells of greater than 2,500 cleaned and decommissioned rail automobiles had been dropped to the underside of the Atlantic to function synthetic reefs for aquatic life.
The newest retirement of a whole class of subway automobiles got here in February 2020, simply earlier than the beginning of the pandemic. That’s when the final of the R42 subway automobiles took a farewell experience on a prepare filled with rail aficionados.
Constructed between 1969 and 1970 by the long-defunct St. Louis Automotive Firm, the R42 automobiles carried New York Metropolis commuters for greater than 50 years, with most being retired between 2006 and 2009.
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