The new-look trains rolling on some of the lettered subway lines offer a glimpse into the fleet of the future.
With wider doors, brighter interiors and advanced cameras, the cars known as the R211 class can now be seen on the A, C and G lines.
As part of the MTA’s proposed $68.4 billion five-year capital plan, the transit agency wants to buy 1,500 more new cars — replacing a fifth of the entire fleet and aligning with its next wave of signal upgrades.
They would eventually take over for many of those familiar orange-and-red-seat rides that were manufactured close to half a century ago, and which officials say are five-and-a-half times more likely to suffer mechanical failures that can 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 Construction & Development, said in a statement 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 new subway cars accounts for the second-largest chunk of New York City Transit’s share of the 2025-2029 capital plan, whose funding remains in question.
Only the $11.9 billion marked for station upgrades — which includes expanding the number of stops fully accessible to people with disabilities — is bigger.
Not since the first capital plan in 1982-1986, when the MTA bought 1,575 new subway cars to help bring the system back from the brink of collapse, has the agency’s blueprint for the future teed up such a sizable one-time investment in the vehicles that now move close to four million riders daily.
“Those subway cars are past their useful life,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and CEO said last fall at the unveiling of the capital plan.
“They need to be retired.”
Want to know much more about the largest subway car fleet in the country and its ongoing overhaul?
Here’s a rundown to get you on track.
How many different train cars are in the subway fleet — and why aren’t they uniform?
New York City Transit presently has 6,712 cars in passenger service, with 15 different models on its numbered lines (called the A Division) and lettered lines (the B Division).
There’s a big difference between the cars and tracks on the two divisions — a product of the subway system’s origins in the early part of the last century.
First there was the privately owned Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) on what are now the numbered lines and the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) on what are now many of the lettered lines.
Later, the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND) included the lettered Sixth and Eighth Avenue lines as well as the Brooklyn-Queen Crosstown Line that carries G train riders.
Cars on the numbered (A Division) lines are shorter and narrower because tunnels along those routes are smaller, with tighter turns.
On average, they’re also older, according to the MTA, with a mean age of 28.4 years.
The larger tunnels on the lettered lines (B Division) are able to accommodate longer and wider subway cars, which have an average age of 23.34 years.
The width between the rails that trains from the two divisions run on is the same, but differences in tunnel and platform dimensions ensure that cars on the numbered lines cannot operate on the lettered lines and vice versa.
Of the hoped-for bulk subway car purchase in the next capital plan, 1,140 would be for the numbered lines, with 355 for the lettered lines, with others brought in for “additional rolling stock support.”
Aren’t we already commuting on new train cars?
Yes — and that’s just the start of things, or so the MTA hopes.
Back in 2023, new cars began running on the A and C lines, as the transit agency rolled out its first new subway cars in five years.
They’re the ones whose wider doors flash green lights when they open as trains pull up to platforms — and red lights just before the doors close.
They also just recently began running on the G line and the Staten Island Railway.
The high-tech R211 cars designed and engineered by Kawasaki Railcar Manufacturing Inc. are part of what will eventually be a total of 1,610 new cars that were purchased for $4.5 billion over the course of two capital programs — the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 plans.
So far, the Japanese manufacturer has delivered 475 of those R211 cars to New York City Transit after running into supply chain-driven delays during the pandemic.
The MTA and Kawasaki are aiming for the full order — which will include 80 more open-gangway versions of the R211 — to be completed by 2028.
Where do these new trains come from?
This latest batch was born in Nebraska — with parts from all over.
But final assembly and systems testing of the R211 cars takes place just north of the city in Yonkers at Kawasaki’s 250,000 square-foot railcar manufacturing plant, which was once home to the Otis Elevator Company.
Opened in 1986, the sprawling Yonkers plant has been the last stop before passenger service for more than 5,000 railcars ordered by U.S. transit agencies, including the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s PATH service.
When it comes to train cars, the MTA has been a consistent Kawasaki customer.
Since its 1982-1986 capital plan, the transit agency has ordered more than 4,600 subway, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad trains cars for all but one of its 10 five-year plans.
“Without the capital programs, this facility probably wouldn’t exist,” Maurice Andriani, Kawasaki’s vice president for business development in North America, told THE CITY.
“And our Lincoln [Nebraska] facility probably wouldn’t have been established.”
Before the R211, the New York City subway cars most recently assembled by Kawasaki were the R188 cars that run on the No. 7 line between Queens and Manhattan.
They began going into passenger service in late 2013, as the No. 7 line underwent a years-long upgrade to its signals.
The new cars are transported from Nebraska to Yonkers on wide-load flatbed trucks and arrive about 90% complete — containing approximately 10,000 components from suppliers far and wide and almost 20 miles of wire in each car.
“It’s a space shuttle,” Andriani said.
Each R211 car is outfitted with parts that include poles from Pennsylvania and seats from Canada.
After arriving, they are connected to form five-car trains for weeks of stationary tests atop multiple elevated tracks inside the factory.
“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,” said Nehru Satahoo, senior manager of production engineering at Kawasaki Rail Car.
“So there’s a lot of work underneath as well as in the interior.”
That’s followed by more analysis on test tracks right outside the factory.
Once the new cars pass muster in Yonkers, they are delivered to the MTA for even more trial runs before eventually going into passenger service.
With wider (by 8 inches) doors, equipped with multiple cameras and extensive digital displays on every car, brighter interiors and flip-up seating, the R211 cars and all future models need to be compatible with the modern signal system that the MTA is installing along more subway lines.
Known as “communication based train control” or CBTC, revamped signals will allow trains to run more frequently and closer together and have been a top priority in the most recent MTA capital plans.
Increasing the supply of modern train cars is central to high-tech efforts to update signals and improve service.
“You need new cars to be able to [work with] CBTC,” Tim Mulligan, the MTA’s chief of rolling stock program, told 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 cars in the system, and when will they be retired?
The subway’s longest-running cars are the orange-seated R46s and you’ll only see them on a few lines: the A, C, N, Q and W lines and along the Rockaway Park Shuttle.
Built between 1975 and 1978, some have been in service going on five decades.
There are hundreds still rattling along the rails.
There were 752 such cars in service when the 2025-2029 plan was unveiled last fall, though the MTA says most of those have outlived their expected useful life of more than 40 years.
The Staten Island Railway has cars that have been around even longer, the R44 models that were built between 1971-73.
The oldest in the subway and on Staten Island are in the process of being retired and gradually replaced by R211 cars.
If the MTA receives the funding needed for its 2025-2029 plan, cars that have been in service since the days of the Reagan Administration would be next to go.
Those include the R62s, which rolled out in 1984 and still run along the 1, 3 and 6 lines.
The remaining R68 models from 1986, which operate primarily on the B, D, N and W lines, would also be retired.
In case you’re curious, the “R” in the names stands for “CAR equipment” within the MTA.
Why?
According to the agency, “C” was already used for “construction” and “A” was designated for “stations.”
As for “S,” it’s used for “signals.”
Where do subway cars go to die?
Most are scrapped, while some are preserved for historical and educational purposes.
The New York Transit Museum, housed in a decommissioned station in Downtown Brooklyn, has several retired cars that are part of its vintage fleet and which are occasionally brought out for nostalgia rides.
Other retired cars are also used in emergency response training or converted into work trains that are used to clear tracks of snow and ice or to transport debris out of the system.
But old subway cars are no longer dropped into the Atlantic Ocean for a watery retirement.
Between August 2001 and April 2010, the shells of more than 2,500 cleaned and decommissioned rail cars were dropped to the bottom of the Atlantic to serve as artificial reefs for aquatic life.
The most recent retirement of an entire class of subway cars came in February 2020, just before the start of the pandemic.
That’s when the last of the R42 subway cars took a farewell ride on a train packed with rail aficionados.
Built between 1969 and 1970 by the long-defunct St. Louis Car Company, the R42 cars carried New York City commuters for more than 50 years, with most being retired between 2006 and 2009.
image source from：https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/14/subway-train-cars-subway-guide/
