Recent news about more problems with 264 of the 318 R179 subway cars, resulting in removal of service again is nothing new. At a cost of $635 million, the MTA NYC Transit purchased this equipment from rail car manufacturer Bombardier using grant funding provided by the Federal Transit Administration. The first cars went into active revenue service in November 2017 with the last cars entering passenger service in March 2020. Since the average useful life for a subway car is 40 years, this equipment is relatively new. It should also be consistently reliable. This has not been the case to date.
The R179 subway car fleet has been assigned to run on the A, C, J and Z Lines. I wonder if the MTA NYC Transit ever conducted a formal Lessons Learned from this previous subway car procurement? If so, did they ever share it with the MTA board and public? Since this was a federally funded project, both the Federal Transit Administration and MTA had their own independent oversight engineering consultants monitoring this previous subway car procurement for many years. Both should have issued a series of monthly and final reports. City Comptroller Scott Stringer also conducted his own audit. All three might make for interesting reading.
Earlier this year, the MTA board approved a $1.4 billion contract award to Kawasaki Rail Car for the purchase of 535 new subway cars. Let’s hope that the next generation of subway cars doesn’t suffer from the same problems as the R179 fleet. Subway car manufacturer Kawasaki needs to adhere to budget, delivery schedule, quality assurance and quality control. The new generation of subway cars upon entering revenue service should be reliable and operate safely. Any potential contract change orders should be fair, reasonable, justified and documented. Taxpayers, subway riders, transit advocates, funding partners and elected officials should expect nothing less from Kawasaki, MTA and NYC Transit.
On another front, here are some ways for Mayor Bill de Blasio to honor the MTA New York City Transit request to find 3,000 volunteers to hand out masks and hand sanitizer at subway stations around the Big Apple. The following would could also apply to Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, PATH, NYC DOT Staten Island Ferry and NICE bus.
Every year judges sentence thousands of non-violent offenders to perform many hours of community service. Why not assign some of these individuals the task of helping the MTA NYC Transit distribute masks and hand sanitizer? Do the same for the hundreds of people recently arrested for disturbing the peace, committing arson, braking windows, destroying public property, looting, assaulting police or other law enforcement officers. Virtually all are being released without bail with no consequences for their illegal actions.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
Larry Penner — transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked 31 years for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office.
