MTA Unveils New Sleek, High-Tech Subway Cars – Here’s Which Lines Get Them

I bet it’s better than the subway car you rode to work in.

On Friday, senior officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority showed off some shiny new high-tech subway cars that they hope to have in service before the end of the year.

So far, the MTA has ordered almost 1,200 new R211 subway cars, worth about $3.2 billion, which will have wider doors for faster boarding, digital displays with additional information, more space for passengers with disabilities, and security cameras in every car for security enhancements.

MTA Says A/C Straps Get First Crack On New Shiny Rides, As Well As A Look At What The MTA Hopes For The Future: Subway Cars Connected By An Open Walkway, Allowing Passengers To Move And Find Seats Easily during peak hours.

So far, the MTA has ordered only two of these open-slide trains as part of a pilot program, but chairman Janno Lieber and his New York City Transit chief Richard Davey capitalized on the benefits when they invited journalists to a demonstration on Friday. .

Paul Martinka

Paul Martinka

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Paul Martinka

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“We have to test them, we have to try them out and see how they work, see if they fit into the environment of New York – there are a lot of complexities,” Lieber told reporters in the new train car. “But when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s always a milestone.”

“We wouldn’t have press if we weren’t happy with” trains, Davey added. “So far, so good.”

The two open-gang trains and their traditional closed-car cousins ​​will allow the MTA to finally replace the troubled R46 trains that date back to the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Open gangway trains connect the first five cars and the last five cars of a train together, allowing passengers to move more easily between front and rear, a common occurrence on major European undergrounds such as the London and Paris Underground.

The new cars will be compatible with the MTA’s new computerized signaling system, which currently powers the 7 and L trains and can run trains every two minutes, allowing officials to significantly increase capacity.

The agency is currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars to implement the system on the 8th Avenue and Fulton Street subways to improve the speed and reliability of the A and C trains.

This gives the transport agencies more room inside for seating and standing, and also allows passengers to quickly move to the emptyer parts of the train if they so desire.

Some New Yorkers mocked the MTA’s apparent design acceptance on Twitter after launch, complaining that bad odors could now contaminate multiple vehicles instead of just one.

Officials said late Friday that if the open gangway pilot proves successful, they could convert the variant they currently have with Kawasaki for an additional 437 R211 vehicles into a configuration – enough for about more than 40 trains.