As part of a $1.1-billion capital investment in new rolling stock, New York City Transit unveiled its first set of R160s along the E line at 7:03 a.m. on Tuesday morning. According to the agency’s press release, this 10-car set was the first of a 1662-car order that will replace the oldest trains along the lettered lines. Based on recent test runs I’ve seen, I have to believe that the E and F lines will be receiving the bulk of these cars, but all of the lettered lines should enjoy some new cars.
R160s arrive on the E
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17 comments
Numbered lines? I think you mean lettered.
Yup. You’re right. My bad. Fixed now.
R please! The relief to my nose alone will be SO worth it. Some day. Well, congrats lucky E and F riders.
From what I hear, it’s going to be a cold day in Hell before R gets new cars :/
The R runs the R46 which are still in my opinion the best cars in the system excluding the tech trains.
Well there are a lot of old cars on the R that are supposed to go away with this order. But the majority are R46 which aren’t going away any time soon, not before 2015. The silver lining is that I actually prefer the sideways seating on these cars–people avoid the window seat for some reason so I almost always get a seat 🙂
The R only runs two to six sets of older trains during rush hours, and those sets willl be replaced by more R46s coming from the F when they get R160s. But how would that be a relief to your nose?
Folks avoid the R46 inner/window seat because you can be trapped by fatties.
Oblivious obese Texans deny my hasty exit.
I just thought it was rudeness. Well, I don’t get trapped by fatties very often because they prefer to take over a couple of the aisle-facing seats when they become available. Anyhow, being almost guaranteed of getting a window seat on my long ride is just too good to worry about who’s gonna sit next to me.
These might be the first R160s on the E, but they’re definitely not the first of the 1,662-car order. The N, Q, W, J, and Z have been running them for more than a year.
I could be mistaken, but I thought that was a different contract.
No, it’s the same contract; it’s just that the MTA made a decision to allocate the trains to the BMT first, so now that the Coney Island and Astoria yards have gotten their shares, it can give new trainsets to the IND.
Astoria is not a yard… it is a terminal.
Here is a general run down:
The R160s are built by two companies with different orders under the same contract.
Base Order:
Alstom R160A (4 Car Sets): 8313-8652; all cars have been delivered and are currently running on the J, L, M and Z lines. They are based out of East New York Yard.
Alstom R160A (5 Car Sets): 8653-8712; all cars have been delivered and are currently running on the N, Q and W lines. They are based out of Coney Island Yard.
Kawasaki R160B (5 Car Sets): 8713-8972; all cars have been delivered and are currently running on the N, Q and W lines. Cars 8843-8972 have Siemens Propulsion. They are based out of Coney Island Yard.
Option Orders:
Alstom R160A Option Order 1 (5 Car Sets): 9233-9592; 9233-9277 are at Jamaica Yard already, other cars to be delivered. They are currently running on the E line as of 22 December 2008. They are based out of Jamaica Yard.
Kawasaki R160B Option Order 1 (5 Car Sets): 8973-9232; 8973-9122 are at Coney Island Yard. They are currently running on the N, Q and W lines. 8973-9162 are based out of Coney Island Yard. 9163-9232 will be based out of Jamaica Yard.
A second option of both R160A and R160B has been exercised in Nov 2008, car numbers are to be assigned.
You can check my R160 Datasheet here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg6xszcp_1gw9f5kw9
It will be updated soon.
Aren’t the new-technology trains on the L R143s, not R160s?
No, the L has both R143s and R160s.
I’ve had the chance the R-160s twice in the past week on the E! I even made it my facebook status too.
Alon’s right, L has both R-143s and R-160s. The easy way to tell is on the inside where the displays of all the stops (and progress) are: R-160s are more electronic and “variable” instead of the fixed plastic you find on the R-143s with the little lighted dots (so it’s useless if there’s a re-routing — on the L, this is not much of an issue though)
Just a few things I should point out.
1. You fixed one of the errors referring to the R160s running on the numbered lines, but not the other.
2. The F doesn’t run R160s yet, they’ll start running their first set anywhere from January to late March. The E will be completely R160 by the time the first option order of R160As is complete, and the F will run enough sets to retire the R32s it runs durin rush hours today. They’ll also displace a few R46 sets from the F, which will go to the R to retire some of the R32/42s the R runs during rush hour.