Because the MTA prepares to make its greatest one-time purchase of latest subway automobiles because the Nineteen Eighties, the transit company is searching for methods to lighten the load on the tracks.
In line with a brand new doc, the MTA is looking for business suggestions on the way to incorporate “innovative, service-proven technologies or emerging technologies already in use” in world metro methods into New York Metropolis Transit’s subsequent technology of subway automobiles on the numbered traces. Among the many potentialities: lighter exterior shells and supplies that assist with “weight optimization.”
“That means you need less energy to power the rolling stock, which makes sense and which is more common in other parts of the world,” Eric Goldwyn, assistant professor within the Transportation and Land-Use Program on the NYU Marron Institute of City Administration, informed THE CITY. “It’s great that the MTA is trying to do their homework and learn what’s going on beyond the five boroughs.”
The doc outlines how New York Metropolis Transit is embarking on the assessment forward of a deliberate $7.6 billion buy of 1,500 new subway automobiles via its 2025-2029 capital plan, which might substitute practically 1 / 4 of your complete fleet. The MTA board final month accepted the $68.4 billion five-year blueprint for system maintenance and growth.
“The MTA is always looking for new ways to enhance the transit system by delivering improvements in performance, reliability and the customer experience, and this review for the future of the A Division [numbered lines] car fleet is part of that commitment,” Tim Mulligan, the company’s chief of rolling inventory program, stated in an announcement.
The doc provides that New York Metropolis Transit is searching for advances that could possibly be “applicable to NYCT operations” whereas not “compromising safety and reliability.”
The allotment for brand new subway automobiles is the most important single chunk of deliberate spending within the new five-year plan. Not because the first capital plan of 1982-1986, when the MTA ordered 1,575 subway automobiles for a system getting ready to collapse, has the company deliberate such a large one-time funding within the automobiles that transfer tens of millions of riders day by day.
Lighter, extra energy-efficient trains may finally emerge on the numbered traces, whose automobiles have a mean age of practically 28.5 years, in line with the MTA. Vehicles on the lettered traces, often called the B Division, common 23.3 years in age.
“It’s a no-brainer to do an industry review,” stated Kate Slevin, govt vice chairman of the Regional Plan Affiliation. “Technologies change and other cities have different approaches and different types of subway cars that they use, so learning from other places is always a good idea.”
The MTA has been doubtlessly utilizing biometrics to manage who enters safe areas on subway trains, Jan. 12, 2024. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
The responses will assist form the MTA’s technical specs for automobiles that can finally substitute R62 and R62A fashions manufactured practically half a century in the past and that are much more inclined than newer automobiles to mechanical failures that result in delays and uncomfortable commutes.
The R62 automobiles, among the many oldest within the fleet, run totally on the No. 1 and three traces and had a imply distance between failure price of near 105,000 miles over the 12 months ending in April, in line with company knowledge. For the R62A automobiles on the No. 1, 6 and forty second Road Shuttle traces, the failure price, which tracks how far subway automobiles journey earlier than a breakdown, was slightly below 75,000 miles.
Systemwide, the assorted subway automotive lessons had a failure price of 114,138 miles over the 12 months as much as April, MTA knowledge reveals — and 125,121 miles if the R62 and R62A lessons aren’t included.
The greater than 6,000 subway automobiles within the New York Metropolis Transit fleet are manufactured from chrome steel and are among the many heaviest on the earth, in line with a 2018 RPA report. The MTA declined to say how a lot its present subway automobiles weigh.
However a number of worldwide methods — together with Oslo, Warsaw and London — have already made or are making a transfer away from heavier railcars, whereas staying in keeping with or enhancing on security requirements.
“Lighter trains are always better, they are cheaper to run, they accelerate faster, they brake faster,” stated Blair Lorenzo, govt director of the Efficient Transit Alliance, which final 12 months criticized what it known as the “recent cost explosion” of New York Metropolis Transit trains. “They’re better all around.”
Different railcar-related objectives of the assessment embody options for designs of the HVAC methods that preserve riders cool in the summertime and heat throughout the winter.
RPA’s 2018 “Save Our Subways” report made suggestions for cooling the subways, together with designing future traces in ways in which generate much less warmth and with turns that cut back the necessity for pointless braking between stations.
“There have been a lot of improvements, but obviously there is a lot more that needs to be done, especially in an environment where every summer is hotter,” Slevin stated.
The MTA additionally needs to study extra about computerized passenger counting methods that observe when, the place and what number of riders board trains, in addition to platform-gap protections that align with the Individuals With Disabilities Act.
Commuters navigate the platform hole in Flatbush, Brooklyn, July 11, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Whereas the MTA didn’t specify potentialities for filling the hole between trains and platforms, commuter rail and light-rail methods in Chicago and Portland are amongst people who have put in retractable ramps often called “bridge plates” to help riders with disabilities.
“They don’t cost much, but they’re tremendous for anyone in a wheelchair or carrying luggage,” Lorenzo stated. “That is a really good idea and we’d like to see that.”
Employee security measures that will probably be checked out as a part of the assessment embody boosting “cab security options” for employee compartments on trains which were susceptible to break-ins by vandals.
Richard Davey, the then-president of New York Metropolis Transit, final 12 months dedicated to fast fixes to locks on prepare crew cabs after a collection of intrusions and employee assaults. He stated on the time that long-term options may embody biometric expertise that may spot employees’ distinctive bodily traits.
A Transport Employees Union Native 100 official informed THE CITY that the short-term fixes have but to be absolutely applied, including that the union is conserving a “close eye” on security considerations repeatedly raised with the MTA.
“Whether it’s Dollar Tree, Chick-fil-A or whatever, the onus is always on the employer to keep employees safe,” stated Aaron Morrison, a union vice chair who represents prepare operators on the lettered traces. “That is non-negotiable.”
The MTA needs to get business suggestions on methods to doubtlessly lower the load of subway undercarriages, March 21, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Whereas structural adjustments to the make-up of subway automobiles are possible years away, transit watchdogs stated the MTA should make smart decisions on important service gear with a projected lifespan of a number of many years.
“These things last 40 years, so it’s really important to get them right,” Lorenzo stated.
She recalled how the MTA was “really burned” within the Nineteen Seventies by cracks within the light-weight undercarriages of a whole bunch of latest R46 subway automobiles, resulting in expensive repairs.
“The whole fleet had to be retrofitted in really short order during one of the darkest periods of the subway when money wasn’t around,” Lorenzo stated.
Goldwyn, of the NYU Marron Institute, stated the MTA has a “generational” probability to study from different transit methods earlier than ordering its subsequent wave of latest subway automobiles.
The batch may even possible embody an unspecified variety of extra open-gangway automobiles like these now seen on the C and G traces, which permit riders to journey the size of a prepare via accordion-like or hard-shelled connectors.
“This is kind of a generational thing,” he stated. “So now we have an opportunity to catch up to everyone else or to leapfrog them, hopefully.”
Associated
