Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
MTA rolls out more modern trains on NYC subway
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jun 29, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Stephen Nessen
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jun 29, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
More modern trains are hitting the city’s subway tracks, MTA officials announced Thursday.
Since March, just one train made up of the agency’s newest subway cars — called R211s — has operated on the A line. The MTA said a second new train has hit the tracks, making it easier for straphangers to take a ride in one of the modern cars.
And starting in August, the MTA said it will deploy at least two new modern trains into service each month.
In addition to a new train smell, the R211 cars feature wider doors, new digital displays — as well as features riders might not see, like security cameras and electronic signal equipment that helps speed up subway service.
The cars are most easily identifiable by their unique floors, which look like a blue and yellow composition book. The new trains also have some seats that flip up or down.
The MTA's new R211 subway car has a shiny exterior, new digital signs and wider doors.
Stephen Nessen
“So, faster, cleaner, safer is what we've said time and time again are our goals, at New York City Transit, and we're delivering it with the new R211s, clearly,” Demetrius Crichlow, the senior vice president for subways at NYCT, said at a news conference in Brooklyn on Thursday.
Crichlow said the MTA hopes to roll out an “open gangway” train — one without doors between its cars — by the end of the year.
The MTA has since 2018 ordered 1,175 of the R211 cars to run on the subway and Staten Island Railway at a cost of $3.2 billion — or about $2.7 million per car.
The car order has been fraught with delays from Kawasaki, the company contracted to build the cars. MTA officials last year reported the delivery of the cars was running more than a year behind schedule.
“Kawasaki has made us a really competent car, a great car,” Crichlow said Thursday.
Tagged
new york city
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .