USA: New York MTA has approved a $1·27bn firm order for a further 435 Kawasaki Rail Car R211 Subway cars, including 80 R211T cars with open gangways.
This takes the total number of R211 cars ordered under the 2018 framework agreement to 1 610, of which 345 are now in service. Deliveries of the latest batch are to begin in 2027.
‘Old train cars break down six times as frequently as new cars, so replacing them is more than just a matter of aesthetics’, said MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber in December 16. ‘This latest purchase will help us get the next generation of rolling stock on the rails sooner so we can keep making the system more reliable and dramatically upgrade the passenger experience.’
The R211s will eventually replace all R44 cars on the Staten Island Railway and the R46 cars. The latest option will also allow bus and metro operating business New York City Transit to begin replacement of the R68s, which entered service in the mid-1980s.
MTS said the new cars have a mean distance between failure of approximately 354 000 km, compared to the R46 fleet’s 74 000 km.
