New York City Subway - Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock

As of June 2011, the New York City Subway has 6,292 cars on the roster. A typical New York City Subway train consists of 8 to 11 cars, although shuttles can have as few as two, and the train can range from 150 to 600 feet (46 to 180 m) in length. Trains not in revenue service can be up to 12 cars long.

The system maintains two separate fleets of cars, one for the IRT lines and another for the BMT/IND lines. All BMT/IND equipment is about 10 feet (3.05 m) wide and either 60 feet 6 inches (18.44 m) or 75 feet (22.86 m) long whereas IRT equipment is approximately 8 feet 9 inches (2.67 m) wide and 51 feet 4 inches (15.65 m) long. There is also a special fleet of BMT/IND cars that is used for operation in the BMT Eastern Division, consisting of R42 married pairs and R143 and R160A four-car sets. Due to clearance issues on various sharp curves, 75-foot (22.86 m) long cars are not permitted on BMT Eastern Division trackage.

Cars purchased by the City of New York since the inception of the IND and the other divisions beginning in 1948 are identified by the letter “R” followed by a number; e.g.: R32. This number is the contract number under which the cars were purchased. Cars with nearby contract numbers (e.g.: R1 through R9, or R26 through R29, or R143 through R160B) may be relatively identical, despite being purchased under different contracts and possibly built by different manufacturers.

The MTA has been incorporating newer subway cars into its stock in the past decade. Since 1999, the R142, R142A, R143, R160A, and R160B fleet have been added into service. These cars feature recorded announcements for station information, closing doors, and other general messages in lieu of conductor announcements, although live conductor announcements can still be made. The recordings began in the late 1990s and featured Bloomberg Radio on-air speakers, who volunteered at the request of their employer and future city mayor Michael Bloomberg. Voices include Jessica Ettinger Gottesman, Diane Thompson, Charlie Pellett, and Catherine Cowdery. With regards to why certain messages are voiced by males and others by females, MTA spokesperson Gene Sansone said in 2006 that, “Most of the orders are given by a male voice, while informational messages come from females. Even though this happened by accident, it is a lucky thing because a lot of psychologists agree that people are more receptive to orders from men and information from women”.

On March 24, 2012, the MTA announced that it ordered 300 R179 subway cars from Bombardier. The total price of the contract is US$600 million, with the first test train arriving in late 2014.