New York has been planning on adding these new subway cars for years, finally achieving their goal in March 2023. More than a thousand of the new R211 trains will be running in New York within two years if all goes according to plan.
New “state-of-the-art” subway cars for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority debuted recently on the A Train in New York City.
“The new R211 model includes security cameras, flip-up seating for added space for riders with disabilities, and door openings that are 8 inches wider for quicker boarding,” according to an article about the new cars by Arya Sundaram for Gothamist.
The new A Trains are just the first wave of what will eventually be 535 new R211 subway cars. ”That includes 15 for the Staten Island Railway and 20 cars with ‘open gangways,’ which allow for free movement between cars,” according to Sundaram. (Open gangways also increase the capacity of subway lines.) Eventually, the MTA plans to but another 640 R211s, bringing the total to 1,175 new subway cars within the next two years.
“The new cars also work with the agency’s new signaling system that will allow trains to run more frequently and closer together,” adds Sundaram.
New York has been preparing for this new batch of subway cars for the better part of a decade. Planetizen first picked up the news about plans to buy a new fleet of subway cars in January 2016, revisiting the updates on the schedule in 2017 and 2018.
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