Home Asides R160s arrive on the E

R160s arrive on the E

by Benjamin Kabak

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.

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17 comments

Eric December 24, 2008 - 3:52 pm

Numbered lines? I think you mean lettered.

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Benjamin Kabak December 24, 2008 - 3:54 pm

Yup. You’re right. My bad. Fixed now.

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rhywun December 24, 2008 - 5:03 pm

R please! The relief to my nose alone will be SO worth it. Some day. Well, congrats lucky E and F riders.

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Adam G December 24, 2008 - 6:21 pm

From what I hear, it’s going to be a cold day in Hell before R gets new cars :/

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Mr. Eric December 24, 2008 - 7:59 pm

The R runs the R46 which are still in my opinion the best cars in the system excluding the tech trains.

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rhywun December 24, 2008 - 8:29 pm

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 🙂

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Kris Datta December 30, 2008 - 5:30 pm

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?

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k.geis December 24, 2008 - 11:40 pm

Folks avoid the R46 inner/window seat because you can be trapped by fatties.

Oblivious obese Texans deny my hasty exit.

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rhywun December 25, 2008 - 3:57 pm

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.

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Alon Levy December 26, 2008 - 12:16 am

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.

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Benjamin Kabak December 26, 2008 - 12:17 am

I could be mistaken, but I thought that was a different contract.

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Alon Levy December 26, 2008 - 1:09 pm

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.

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Henry Man December 29, 2008 - 1:11 pm

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.

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Adam G December 26, 2008 - 1:43 am

Aren’t the new-technology trains on the L R143s, not R160s?

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Alon Levy December 27, 2008 - 10:05 am

No, the L has both R143s and R160s.

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R2 December 29, 2008 - 1:16 pm

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)

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Kris Datta December 29, 2008 - 1:19 pm

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.

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