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MTA to Experiment With Open Style Subway Cars

By Jeff Mays | January 29, 2016 1:18pm
 Straphangers hoping to move from one subway car to the next may no longer have to risk a ticket or make a mad dash when the doors open if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approves a new "open gangway" style of trains.
MTA to Experiment With Open Style Subway Cars
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NEW YORK CITY—Straphangers hoping to move from one subway car to the next may no longer have to risk a ticket or make a mad dash when the doors open if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approves a new "open gangway" style of trains.

Instead of individual cars, the train would be just one long open car, allowing passengers to move freely. It would be similar to the articulated buses now being used on city streets.

The design is already used in cities such as London, Tokyo and Toronto and could increase capacity by 10 percent while reducing overcrowding, especially around doors.

"If one car is more crowded and egress is slowed, customers can simply walk to the next car to exit," said MTA spokeswoman Marisa Baldeo.

The MTA plans to order two five-car links from two separate manufacturers in 2017 as part of the $29 million five year capital plan now pending approval in Albany.

The prototypes, known as R211s, would cost $52.4 million and replace the R46 trains now running on the A and the R lines. If approved, the trains could be in service by 2020.

"We need to look at all options as we move forward with the design of the next generation of cars that could be running in our system for the next 30 to 40 years," Baldeo said.

The MTA is under pressure to make improvements as ridership continues to soar — along with delays.

In 2014, ridership increased 2.6 percent to 1.75 billion passengers. An average of 5.6 million customers rode the subway on weekdays and there was an average of 6 million passengers on the weekend.

New York City's population is expected to reach 9 million people years earlier than previous projections after population grew half a million people from 2000 to 2014. The number of tourists visiting the city jumped by 2 million to 58.3 million visitors in 2015.

"This is a way we can accommodate more riders without spending billions of dollars to upgrade signal systems over many years," said John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance. "This is an example of the MTA experimenting and being open to new ideas, which is a good thing for riders."

But transit advocates are still waiting for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to spell out the specifics of how the $8.3 billion the state has committed to the MTA capital plan will be delivered.

"These new train cars can only become reality if Gov. Cuomo funds the capital program and allows the MTA to get started on the work," Raskin said.