New York's record-breaking order - Transit Update - MTA New York City Transit awards contract to Alstom Transport - Brief Article

Railway Age, Sept, 2002

In what is believed to be the largest transit car purchase ever made in the U.S., Alstom Transport has been awarded a contract worth, with options, up to $2.36 billion by MTA New York City Transit for up to 1,700 R160 rapid transit cars for the NYCT "B" Division (former BMT and IND). The base order, worth $961 million and financed 80% by a Federal Transit Administration grant, calls for 660 cars to be delivered through 2007. Two options, which would be included in the MTA's 2004-2009 capital plan, call for 620 additional cars delivered 2007-2008 and 420 more delivered 2008-2009. The contract includes spare parts, test equipment and specialized tools, training, a computerized parts inventory system, and an option for parts that will be needed over the long term. The initial 660 cars will replace 607 aging BMT/IND cars: 10 R32GEs, 196 R38s, 291 R40s, and 110 R42s.

Alstom competed with Bombardier Transportation and Kawasaki Railcar for the contract. NYCT specifications called for the R160 to be electrically and mechanically compatible with, as well as virtually identical in appearance to, Kawasaki's R143 car, 212 of which Kawasaki is building for NYCT's B Division. Alstom will share part of the order with Kawasaki in exchange for access to Kawasaki's designs and technology. Also like the R143, the R160 will be CBTC (communications-based train control)-ready. NYCT is currently in the midst of a CBTC pilot program on the Canarsie "L" line, where part of the Kawasaki R143 fleet is in service.

Alstom and Kawasaki are currently negotiating the terms of what the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is calling a "contractual relationship," details of which have yet to be finalized. The two builders will establish an engineering and design team. Alstom will assemble approximately 60% of the cars at its Hornell, N.Y., plant, with carshells fabricated at Alstom facilities in Brazil. Kawasaki will assemble approximately 40% of the cars at its Yonkers, N.Y., plant, with carshells fabricated at Kawasaki's newly constructed railcar manufacturing facility in Lincoln, Neb.

The R160 will be equipped with many state-of-the-art features: three-phase a.c. propulsion, a regenerative braking system that returns power to the third rail, LonWorks-based trainline communications, automated passenger announcements, destination signs that display train position enroute, and computerized health monitoring and diagnostics.