R179 (New York City Subway car)

R179
An R179 train testing at Rockaway Boulevard
Manufacturer	Bombardier Transportation
Built at	Bombardier's Plattsburgh facility
Family name	NTT (new technology train)
Replaced	Most of the R32s All remaining R42s
Constructed	2016-2018 (expected)
Entered service	2017 (expected)
Number under construction	290 (260 in 4-car sets, 30 in 5-car sets)
Number built	10
Formation	65 four-car sets (two B cars) 8 five-car sets (three B cars)
Fleet numbers	R179 five-car sets: 3010–3049 R179 four-car sets: 3050–3309
Operator(s)	New York City Subway
Depot(s)	[1]
Specifications
Train length	4-car train: 240.84 feet (73.41 m) 5-car train: 301.05 feet (91.76 m) 8-car train: 481.68 feet (146.82 m) 10-car train: 602.1 feet (183.5 m)
Car length	60.21 feet (18.35 m)
Floor height	3.76 ft (1.15 m)
Platform height	3.76 ft (1.15 m)
Entry	3.76 ft (1.15 m)
Doors	8 per car
Traction system	Bombardier MITRAC AC Propulsion
Prime mover(s)	electric motor
Electric system(s)	600V DC Third rail
Current collection method	Contact shoe
Safety system(s)	emergency brakes
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

The R179 is a class of 300 New Technology Train subway cars built by Bombardier Transportation for the New York City Subway's B Division. The cars are anticipated to retire all remaining R42s (50 cars), as well as a majority of remaining R32s.

Description

The R179s are numbered 3010–3309. Cars 3010-3049 are arranged as five-car sets, while the remaining 260 cars (3050-3309) are arranged as four-car sets.

Contract details

The R179 contract originally consisted of 208 75-foot-long (23 m) cars.^[2] Later, in the 2010-2014 Capital Program the proposed order was expanded to 420 cars (340 New York City Subway, 80 Staten Island Railway).^[3] Even later, the order was reduced to 340 cars in early 2011, and finally to 300 cars in November 2011.

The R179s were intended to replace all the R44s, but due to structural integrity issues found on New York City Transit's R44s in early 2010, those cars' retirement was facilitated by option order R160s. Additionally, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority later dropped the plan to order R179s for the Staten Island Railway, instead opting to overhaul some R46s to replace the existing R44s there. However, the plan to overhaul the R46s for the Staten Island Railway was also cancelled; thus, new future R211S cars are planned to replace the Staten Island Railway's fleet of R44s instead.^[4]

The official RFP was issued on June 3, 2010. Bids were due by the following August 13, and in April 2011 the contract was expected to be awarded for $637.8 million.^[5] However, there were delays with negotiation problems, and the projected cost went up to $748 million in October 2011.^[6] The contract specified the purchase of 290 cars with 250 arranged as 5-car sets and the remaining 40 arranged in 4-car sets, with the 50 Option I cars arranged in 5-car sets. There was also a second option for 80 additional cars, which would have supplied cars for Second Avenue Subway Phase I service. The proposed MTA 2010-2014 Capital Program pointed toward an order of 60-foot (18.29 m) cars.^[7] In November 2011, the order was altered to only a base order of 300 cars,^[8][9] 260 of which will be in 4-car sets, and 40 of which will be in 5-car sets, with no options.^[10] The contract was finally awarded on March 24, 2012,^[11] when it was awarded to Bombardier Transportation for $599 million, below the projected cost.^[12][13] The joint venture Alskaw, made up of Kawasaki and Alstom, who built the R160A/B cars, protested the award of the contract to the Bombardier immediately after the MTA Board approved the contract.^[14] However, the protest was denied, and the contract was signed by the company on June 4, 2012.^[15][16]

The order is anticipated to retire all remaining R42s (50 cars). All R32s were planned to be replaced by the R179s as well, but many are now expected to be retained due to delays in the delivery of the R179s and potential need of extra rolling stock to provide additional service.^[17] As a result, the MTA is expected to spend another $49.2 million to refurbish and maintain 132 R32 cars through 2018 and then 110 R32 cars through 2019.^[18]

Features

The R179 cars are equipped with updated control systems, HVAC and public address systems to guarantee the utmost in safety and passenger comfort. They are visually very similar to the R160s, but the two car types are not interoperable with each other due to electrical incompatibilities between the two types of cars.^[19]

The R179s, like the R160s, employ an advanced alternative to electronic strip maps, called the "Flexible Information and Notice Display," or "FIND." They are manufactured by Panasonic. This includes an LCD screen displaying the route, route information, and advertisements, as well as a dynamic red, yellow, and green LED strip map that displays the next ten stations, plus five consecutive "further stops" to riders. There are three of these in every car. The display updates the stations at every stop, also giving the number of stops to each station listed. This allows for instant route or line changes with the correct information, which includes, but is not limited to, omitting certain stops (displayed as "Will not stop" in red). The LCD displays where the route is displayed are slightly larger than those on the R160s.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Unlike the R160s, the cab cars have advertisement space on the wall between the operators' cab and the passenger areas.^[24][25]

The R179s include provisions for the retrofit of CBTC equipment.

The R179s will be equipped with looped stanchions in the interiors of trains, so as to provide passengers on crowded trains with a greater amount of pole surface area to grab on to.^[24][25] This feature is used on R160A consist 9798–9802.

Problems

A 2012 news report from the New York Daily News indicated that a high-ranking MTA official had been in talks with car builder Bombardier Transportation, Inc. for a job.^[26] This prompted an ethics investigation, but has since been resolved.^[27]

In October 2012, the first test train was scheduled to arrive on December 22, 2014, the first production unit was scheduled to arrive on July 27, 2015, and the entire order was to be completed on January 30, 2017.^[10] After some delays in starting production, a non-operational mockup was built in late November 2013. Delivery of the first 10-car test train was now scheduled for the third quarter of 2014,^[16] though delivery of the production cars was still scheduled to begin July 2015 and continue through January 2017. However, as NYCTA's and Bombardier's inspectors found cracks due to welding issues in the prototype train's chassis, the entire lot was rejected, and the delivery schedule was pushed back by two years.^[28][29] The delays in delivery have increased the cost of the cars from $599 million to $735 million; these additional costs add to the costs required to maintain older cars.^[30][31]

Delivery

R179 3015 being delivered

Bombardier is building the cars in its Plattsburgh, New York, facility.^[32] The first car of the first five-car consist, 3014, was delivered on September 6, 2016, and delivery of the other cars (3010–3013) was completed by September 8, 2016.^[33] The other five cars of the first test train (3015–3019), were expected to arrive by mid-September 2016, but delivery of the cars was delayed until November 15, 2016, when 3019 was delivered;^[30][34] subsequently, 3015-3018 were delivered between November 16, 2016 and November 17, 2016. Regardless, the R179s began non-revenue service tests on October 13, 2016 when cars 3010-3014 were set up as a test train.^[35] These same cars began clearance testing on November 20, 2016.^[36]

The first production cars are expected to be delivered in February 2017. The first 88 to 92 cars are intended be delivered by the third quarter of 2017, the first 210 are intended to be delivered by the first quarter of 2018, and all cars are expected to be on property by July 2018.^[8]

It has been planned that the five-car sets will make up a small part of the A's fleet and that some of the four-car sets will comprise the C's entire fleet.^[37] In general, the cars are tentatively planned to be assigned on services that currently use R32s and R42s (the C and J/Z) or are subject to the retrofitting of CBTC (the A, C, L, and M).^[38]

See also

• New Technology Train - a list of all such trains on the New York City Subway.
• R143 (New York City Subway car) - a similar car built by Kawasaki Railcar Corp. of Kobe, Japan
• R160 (New York City Subway car) - a similar car built by Alstom and Kawasaki Railcar Corp.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to R179 (New York City Subway car).

• nycsubway.org: New Technology Trains - B Division
• MTA Committee Meeting Discussing the R179
• Staff Summary
• Rendering by Bombardier

New York City Subway revenue rolling stock
Current	B Division / SIR: R32 R42 R44 R46 R68 R68A NTT R143 R160 R179 A Division: R62 R62A NTT R142 R142A R188
Future	B Division / SIR: R211
Retired (R-type)	IND / BMT (B Division): Arnines R1 R4 R6 R7 R7A R9 R10 R11/R34 R16 Redbirds R27 R30/A R38 R40 R40A R110B (experimental) IRT (A Division): R12 R14 R15 R17 R21 R22 Redbirds R26 R28 R29/R99 R33 R33 WF R36 R36 WF R110A (experimental) Train of Many Colors
Retired (private operators)	BMT / SIR Elevated: BU cars C-type Q-type Queens car Subway: AB Standard Bluebird Compartment Car D-type Triplex MS Multi-section car SIRT ME-1 IRT Composite Gibbs Hi-V Deck Roof Hi-V Hedley Hi-V Steinway Lo-V "Flivver" Lo-V Standard Lo-V World's Fair Lo-V
Work trains	R8A R65 R127/R134 R156
Never built	R39 R55 R83
See also: R-type contracts