NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board has approved purchase of 378 R268 subway cars from Kawasaki Railcar under a contract valued at $1.507 billion.
The approval came during the board meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 30. Tim Mulligan, the MTA’s chief of rolling stock, said the purchase would complete replacement of R68 and R68a railcars, built between 1986 and 1989 and nearing the end of their service life. Delivery of the new cars will begin in late 2028. They are for use on the NYCT’s B Division lines (the lettered lines: A, B, C, D, etc.) which uses larger equipment than that of the numbered A Division lines.
The cars will use an existing design, Mulligan said, allowing the MTA to “reduce design and development costs, accelerating the delivery of new subway cars and minimizing risk and cost.” Cars will be delivered almost four years earlier than through the normal procurement process, he said.
The new equipment will also support the ongoing conversion of New York’s subways to Communications Based Train Control. Funding is from the budget for MTA’s 2025-29 capital plan.
Kawasaki is also the builder of the R211 cars, also used on the B Division lines as well as the Staten Island Railway. Some 1,610 of those cars are in service or on order [see “New York MTA set to order …,” Trains.com, Dec. 17, 2024].
The board also approved exercise of an option to purchase 45 additional battery-diesel locomotives from Wabtec’s Motive Power Inc., along with related parts and equipment, for $386.2 million. The contract calls for delivery of the locomotives, for New York City Transit construction and maintenance work, to begin in May 2027. NYCT had previously purchased 25 R255 locomotives from Wabtec in 2020; the first of those locomotives received approval for use across the NYCT system earlier this year [see “Wabtec hybrid locomotives approved …,” Trains.com, Jan. 7, 2025].
