USA: The New York MTA board has approved the award of a $1·507bn contract for Kawasaki Rail Car to supply 378 R268 metro cars for the Subway’s B division.
The order is being funded by the MTA’s $68bn 2025-29 Capital Plan. Deliveries of the R268 cars are scheduled from autumn 2028 through to 2030, allowing the MTA to retire the last of its R68 and R68A cars on the B, D, N, Q, W and S (Franklin Avenue shuttle) lines.
The metro cars will be designed with similar specifications to the R211 cars, with CCTV, accessible seating, bright lights and clear signage.
They will also support the ongoing conversion of lines to communications-based train control, which will enable MTA to run more trains more frequently and more reliably and provide more accurate real-time train arrival information.
‘This purchase allows us to replace cars at the end of their useful life before they start breaking down. And by building on the successful procurement of R211 train cars, we were able to save money’, MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber said on October 31.
Kawasaki Rail Car Inc President Yusuke Hirose said the contract would secure employment for hundreds of workers at its Yonkers site, and means the company will have prodcued more than 4 000 cars for New York City Transit.
New York state Governor Kathy Hochul said ‘these new Subway cars will carry billions of riders over their lifetime, connecting the people and places we hold dear with the safety and reliability New Yorkers need and deserve’.
