New Open Gangway Subway Cars Make Their Debut on the C-Line

New York City subway riders will have the opportunity to experience the first open gangway subway cars to be introduced to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) system; last operating on the tracks between 1925 and 1965 when the “Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), one of the three operating authorities that were precursors to the amalgamated New York City Transit, ran three-car open gangway segments.” As the first to operate in the U.S. in the modern era, the new R211T subway cars made their inaugural trip on February 1st; and will run on the C-line between Washington Heights and East New York under a pilot program to determine if the open gangway design works for New Yorkers. All R211T cars are equipped with pre-installed security cameras to boost ridership safety, bringing the total within the system to 1,000 cars, with the “rest of the NYC Transit fleet scheduled to have in-car camera installations completed by January 2025,” adding to the approximately 15,000 cameras the MTA has installed across all 472 stations. Some additional features incorporated into the design of the R211 car series to improve the customer experience are an eight-inch widening of doorway openings to help speed up boarding, additional accessible seating, digital displays providing more detailed station-specific information, and brighter lighting and signage.

Source:    https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-launches-first-open-gangway-train-service-and-announces-1000-subway-cars-now