NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit will speed up efforts to replace damaged windows on its multilevel railcars, cutting the time to complete to three years instead of the previously projected six to eight years.
The plan to replace the windows in one third of the fleet over the next three years was announced Wednesday, March 5, at Newark Penn Station by CEO Kris Kolluri
The polycarbonate coating on the cars’ windows has been damaged by exposure to elements, leading to a cloudy appearance. The agency worked with the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation to determine if the windows could be repaired, but that was determined not to be a viable option, so replacement is now underway.
“NJ Transit understands how the cloudy train windows on our multilevel rail cars impacts our customers’ travel experience,” Kolluri said in a press release “Accelerating the timeline for these window replacements reflects NJ Transit’s commitment to continually find ways to improve the customer experience along every aspect of the journey.”
Materials have been ordered that will allow windows to be replaced on all Multilevel II cars — built by Bombardier, now part of Alstom — by Dec. 31 of this year. Replacement of the rest of the fleet of more than 400 cars will be complete by April 2028. In all, more than 13,000 windows will be replaced.
Amtrak discovered fifty years ago that the outer and inner window panes needed to be actual glass. You could have plastic as a third (middle) pane to prevent projectiles from penetrating.
I recall a couple of trips on Amtrak in the 1973 to 1975 range where the windows were a translucent glow (in the daytime) but I couldn’t see out of them. Fortunately these were in territory with not much to look at.
Was it “the” elements that damaged the cars windows or just elements. If it was the elements, which to me means normal outdoor weather that windows should normally withstand, then it would seem the glass manufacturer should be responsible for replacement cost. Or was it something else like a cleaning chemical?
The agency worked with the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation to determine if the windows could be replaced, but that was determined not to be a viable option, so replacement is now underway.
Huh? Editor??
I noticed that too. Would Gramarly catch an error like that ?