KEARNY, N.J. — NJ Transit today introduced the first car from its next-generation order for 174 multilevel railcars being built by Alstom in an event at the agency’s Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny.
The new electric multiple-unit cars will allow retirement of remaining single-level Arrow III cars that are more than 40 years old. They will eliminate the unpopular center seat of the Arrow cars, which have two-three seating as opposed to the two-two seating in the new cars, although the new cars still will offer 11% more capacity than the Arrows. The new cars also have a top speed of 110 mph, compared to the Arrows, which were built with a top speed of 100 but are restricted to 80 mph on the Northeast Corridor.
Other features include additional bicycle capacity, USB ports, high-definition information systems, and video security systems. The cars will begin entering service the middle of next year.
“NJ Transit is committed to improving every aspect of the customer journey,” CEO Kevin S. Corbett said in a press release, “and the 174 new multilevel railcars will achieve that through vastly improving reliability, increasing capacity, and enhancing the onboard experience.”
NJ Transit placed the original order for 113 of the cars with Bombardier Transit Corp., now part of Alstom Transportation, in December 2018. The agency subsequently ordered another 25 cars in February 2022 and added 36 more to the order in July 2024 [see “NJ Transit orders 36 new EMU railcars …,” Trains News Wire, July 25, 2024]. The cars — the first multilevel EMUs in the United States — are being built at an Alstom factory in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The total cost of the three orders is approximately $914 million; federal funds have covered $567.5 of that cost.
CalTrain’s new Stadler cars are also multilevel EMUs, and entered service in September.
Only 6 years form order to prototype. Then a few years of testing. Is that the new norm?
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