New York Set to Acquire the Next Generation of Subway Cars

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The agency that runs New York City’s troubled subway said on Friday that it plans to spend close to $4 billion to buy over a thousand new train cars to modernize an aging fleet, a major investment meant to help remedy the delays and breakdowns that plague the system.

New York will also join a handful of cities around the world to deploy trains with open pathways between cars that can squeeze in more riders at a time when the subway struggles under the burden of accommodating nearly six million rides every day.

The first cars, which will be manufactured under a contract between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Japanese company, Kawasaki, are scheduled to be delivered in July 2020.

The contract, which still has to be approved by the M.T.A. board, is split into three phases. At the outset, the authority has committed about $1.45 billion to buy over 500 cars with an agreement to take steps to purchase more if the initial group performs well, for a total of 1,612 cars. The contract could ultimately pay Kawasaki more than $3.7 billion with the financing being provided by the federal Transit Administration. To win the contract, Kawasaki had to demonstrate it could deliver the first batch of cars 30 months from the day it is officially awarded, after the board votes later this month.

“We know how important these new cars are to our system, to our customers,” said Phil Eng, the chief operating officer for the M.T.A. “One of the challenges we’ve had in the past is finding ways to get these cars into service sooner rather than later.”

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The award is a blow to the Canadian aerospace and train manufacturer, Bombardier, which was hired to build the city’s last fleet of new cars, but delivered them two years behind schedule. Over the last two months, the first several dozen Bombardier R-179 cars began rolling on city tracks. “That is something that is unacceptable here,” said Mr. Eng. The Kawasaki contract, he added, includes clauses that assess a penalty should the manufacturer fail to meet the schedule.

As part of the agreement, the cars will be assembled entirely in America. They will be built in Kawasaki’s plant in Yonkers in Westchester County, and another facility in Lincoln, Neb.

“We’re thrilled,” said John Samuelsen, international president of Transport Workers Union, which fought for the jobs component of the agreement. “The billions of dollars that transit agencies spend every year on new rail cars and equipment should to every extent possible be used to create jobs for American families, not jobs overseas.”

The cars, which are designated as R211 , will be provided in three installments. Kawasaki will supply 535 at first, including 75 Staten Island Railway cars that will replace the borough’s entire existing fleet of nearly 40-year-old cars. The R211 subway cars will gradually replace the authority’s fleet of over 750 R46 cars, which were built between 1975 and 1978, and run on the A, F, R and C lines as well as the some shuttle.

Aesthetically, they will have brighter lighting than existing cars, but the color scheme for seats and rails is yet to be decided. The doors on each car will be 58 inches wide, rather than the current 50 inches. Each car will have eight digital screens along the side, displaying information and advertisements.

A batch of 20 trains will be the much-heralded open-gangway cars, which are similar in concept to accordionlike buses and are designed to hold more people. They are built in five-car units; a train will consist of two linked sets, for a total of 10 cars. If the first group proves successful, then the authority plans to obtain more, even perhaps, the entire rest of the order.

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“I am very keen to introduce new, very customer-friendly, high amenity, very reliable rolling-stock into the New York system,” said Andy Byford, the former chief executive of the Toronto Transit Commission who this week became the president of New York City Transit, which operates the subway and buses. “We are determined to modernize the New York City subway, that’s one of the prime reasons I’ve come, and I’m determined to push on with that.”

While the constant failures of the subway’s antiquated signal system and issues like packed rush-hour platforms have contributed to its dismal on-time performance, car breakdowns are also a major factor. Part of the intention behind the enormous and sped-up purchase of shiny new cars is the seemingly straightforward premise that newer cars will break down less. But, in fact, both older and newer cars have been breaking down more often, according to a recent state comptroller report, which is reflected in a sharp drop in what is known as “mean distance between failures,” a metric the M.T.A. uses to measure performance.

As a result, one of the most striking changes will be invisible to commuters: R211 cars will be equipped with monitoring computers that will relay information in real-time about its performance — a health check of sorts — so that an ailing train can be diagnosed even before it has been hauled back to the repair shop.

To further tackle the issue, the contract stipulates that the Kawasaki cars adhere to specific reliability requirements, as a warranty. The level of performance that the cars’ critical systems — such as doors and brakes, some of the largest contributors to delays — are required to demonstrate, based in part in how many miles they travel before breaking down, is more than double that of past contracts, according to the agency. If they fail to meet those levels, Kawasaki itself must shoulder the cost of any repairs, instead of the authority.

The Riders Alliance, an advocacy group, praised the introduction of gangway cars, which been slow to catch on in America. Toronto in 2011 became the first North American city to adopt them and now more than 80 such trains run on one of its lines. In New York City, the open gangway train are expected to fit 1,785 people, 55 more than an equivalent regular train.

“Our system is at capacity, addressing overcrowding helps with reliability,” said Rebecca Bailin, the campaign manager for the Riders Alliance. “Subways are delayed when people can’t fit in them.” But, she added, a slew of new trains does not get at the root causes of the subway’s ills, including the crumbling infrastructure, outdated signaling systems that have to be replaced as well as new ways to pay for it all.

And open gangway cars are not without their complications: If one car breaks, the entire train set has to be taken out of service. It also remains to be seen how they are able to handle New York City’s sharply curving tracks, Mr. Byford said. Nevertheless, he added, “I’m a big fan. I think people will love them.”