The New York City Transit Authority pulled all 298 Bombardier-built R179 cars from service Tuesday evening after the car maker said the uncontrolled door openings were part of a larger problem with the group of cars. The two incidents happened on Dec. 24 and Jan. 3.
The problem-plagued cars were originally slated for full delivery by January 2017 as part of a $600 million contract for the builder. Final deliveries happened only in December 2019.
In their place, the system has brought out spare subway cars including recently retired R32 cars first introduced in 1964. Those earlier cars were supposed to have been replaced by the R179s.
On Thursday morning, one train of the older cars broke down in a station in Brooklyn, delaying eight other trains, said MTA spokesman Tim Minton, as reported in the New York Daily News.
With each R179 car to be looked at, inspections are being done by Bombardier; Kangni, the door mechanism subcontractor; LTK Engineering, a third party hired by the MTA to assure proper quality control; and New York City Transit staff. After Bombardier’s assurances that the 298 cars could be fully inspected in a few days, the process has been slower; since Tuesday night, the inspection rate has been 12 cars a day. A new software fix has been developed for a solution, but this will mean additional inspection time for each subway car.
The problems with prolonged delivery raises questions about the MTA’s plan to efficiently spend $6 billion on 1,900 additional subway cars as part of the agency’s $51.5 billion new 2020-24 capital plan.
