Details of the largest metro car order in North American history were confirmed on April 29. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has reached agreement with two manufacturers to acquire 1080 vehicles for the IRT division. They will replace many of MTA New York City Transit’s oldest cars, some dating from 1959.
The R-142 contract, valued at $1·45bn, will be finalised when the New York State legislature approves a further capital improvement programme for the MTA totalling $11·9bn. The authorising bill was expected to pass late last month and Governor George Pataki had already announced he would sign it.
MTA originally planned to purchase 740 cars but fierce competition by the two finalists in the bidding, Bombardier and Kawasaki, drove down prices. The agency took advantage of the situation, bargaining around the clock to get 1080 cars for the amount it had budgeted to buy 740.
MTA Chairman E Virgil Conway called it ’a victory for the workers at the Kawasaki plant in Yonkers and Bombardier’s facility in Plattsburgh’, referring to New York State plants where the cars will be assembled.
The vote by the MTA board was 10 to 4, with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s four appointees in opposition because they insisted they were not adequately briefed on the terms - despite negotiations that lasted a year. ’The mayor just doesn’t like having major deals sprung on him overnight’, said board member and former Deputy Mayor John Dyson: ’we had 12 hours or less to decide on a $1bn-plus expenditure.’ Conway countered by pointing out that the Governor was told of the contract terms just one day in advance ’and he is here’. Dyson said the MTA might have bought fewer vehicles and spent some of the money to refurbish stations.
Bombardier got the lion’s share of the order: 680 cars at a cost of $921m plus a $194m option for another 200 cars. Bodyshells will be manufactured at the company’s La Pocatière plant in Québec. Further manufacture and assembly will take place at expanded factories in Plattsburgh and Auburn, New York.
Kawasaki will build its 400 cars at an existing facility in Yonkers, just north of New York City, which it opened in 1984 to build rapid transit cars for the PATH system. Production is scheduled to get under way in October with initial deliveries set for early 1999.
The cars will be unusual in many respects, especially for New York which has traditionally ordered single units or married pairs with conventional DC motors. The R-142s will be a significantly improved version of the two ’new technology’ R-110 trains, also built by Bombardier (R-110B) and Kawasaki (R-110A); these were ordered in 1989 and have been in revenue service for over two years.
The R-142 trains will be built as semi-permanently coupled sets of five cars. Two A cars with a full-width cab at one end and four motored axles will bracket three B cars equipped with just one powered bogie. The 14 driven axles under each five-car unit will have 112 kW asynchronous traction motors supplied with three-phase AC by IGBT inverters.
Other novel features include regenerative dynamic braking and lightweight, outboard bearing bogies with welded steel frames. The drivers’ consoles are ergonomically designed with easy-to-reach controls. Bodies will be fabricated of stainless steel with wider doors and windows and more standing room than existing New York subway cars. Bench seats accommodating 34 on the A cars and 40 on the B cars will replace the bucket seats now used on about half the IRT fleet.
External dimensions will be about the same as cars currently running on the IRT division, which features narrower tunnels and sharper curves than other New York Subway routes. o
Reader Enquiry Numbers
Bombardier 118
Kawasaki 119
CAPTION: A computer simulation of the R-142. The first of the 1 040 cars on order should be delivered in 1999
