{"id":168694,"date":"2026-03-19T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168694\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:56:10","slug":"mta-seeking-bids-to-replace-oldest-nyc-subway-cars-on-numbered-lines-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168694\/","title":{"rendered":"MTA seeking bids to replace oldest NYC subway cars on numbered lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTA honchos announced Thursday they have started the procurement process<\/a> for the newest generation of subway car, set to serve on New York City system\u2019s numbered lines.<\/p>\n

Dubbed the R262, the new model is intended to replace the oldest subway cars on the city\u2019s numbered lines \u2014 the R62 fleet found on the Nos. 1, 3 and 6 lines \u2014 but will eventually make up the bulk of the fleet on the numbered lines, known internally as NYC Transit\u2019s \u201cA-division.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got cars in service today that are 40 or 50 years old,\u201d MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Thursday, speaking at the agency\u2019s Rail Car Acceptance Facility in Sunset Park<\/a>. \u201cThese cars are well past their useful lives, and by the time we\u2019re able to replace them \u2014 they\u2019re getting older and older.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MTA\u2019s \u201crequest for proposals,\u201d issued Thursday, seeks a firm able to deliver an initial order of 1,140 individual subway cars, with an option to purchase 1,250 more \u2014 enough, Lieber said, to eventually serve on nearly every numbered line.<\/p>\n

Interested firms have also been instructed to provide an option for an open-gangway design, in which passengers could move freely between the train cars.<\/p>\n

The 1980s-era R62 subway cars were once the hallmark of a renewed public transit system. Purchased through the agency\u2019s first five-year capital plan, they were a stark contrast to graffiti-covered Redbirds and other older cars along the IRT. During their inaugural 1983 run, then-Mayor Ed Koch rode one of the new, stainless-steel-skinned trains, walking from car to car<\/a>, beseeching straphangers to keep them clean.<\/p>\n

But as the Daily News has previously reported<\/a>, spare parts are sparse for the aging Kawasaki-built R62 and its Bombardier-built brethren, the R62A. Their air conditioning systems are finicky. And they are decades out from their last modernization in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have a soft spot for the older cars,\u201d Lieber said Thursday, while standing beside a shiny new Kawasaki R211, bound for the system\u2019s lettered lines. \u201cBut it\u2019s a fact that these old cars break down much more frequently than the new cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to MTA data, the R211 \u2014 the newest car in the NYC Transit fleet, in service on the on the A, C, G and B lines \u2014 travels an average of roughly 300,000 miles before it needs to be taken out of service for repairs. That\u2019s about triple the distance the agency has come to expect out of the R62 and R62A.<\/p>\n

But the numbered lines have narrower tunnels than their lettered counterparts \u2014 meaning cars like the R211 can\u2019t be used.<\/p>\n

But Jesse Lazarus \u2014 the MTA\u2019s newly minted train-car czar \u2014 said Thursday that the agency isn\u2019t just looking for a more svelte take on the R211.<\/p>\n

Lazarus said the agency is looking for a lighter car with more modern technologies than even the R211 \u2014 like silicon-carbide inverters in the propulsion system to more efficiently power the motors and electronically controlled brakes to reduce maintenance costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat generates long-term savings,\u201d she said of electronically controlled brakes. \u201cYou strip out some of the old, clunky pneumatic systems, like valves and pipes, and the rubber that breaks down and deteriorates and must be replaced repeatedly.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the R62s \u2014 complete with their orange bucket seats and their vintage air conditioners \u2014 will still stick around for a while.<\/p>\n

A contract to build the R262 is expected to be awarded in 2028 \u2014 and the new-model trains are unlikely to see passengers before the 2030s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MTA honchos announced Thursday they have started the procurement process for the newest generation of subway car, set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2423,69196,9,56,63,65,64,1210,69195,8025,52977,69197],"class_list":["post-168694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-janno-lieber","tag-lines","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nyc-transit","tag-older-cars","tag-subway-car","tag-subway-cars","tag-train-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}