R160A (New York City Subway car)

R160A (New York City Subway car)
An R160A Template:NYCS-bull-small train enters Hewes Street.
Constructed	2005-2010
Entered service	2006
Number in service	1002 (878 in revenue service during rush hours)
Specifications
Car length	60.21 feet (18.35 m)
Platform height	3.76 ft (1.1 m)
Doors	8 per car
Braking system(s)	Dynamic braking propulsion system; WABCO RT-5 tread brake system

The R160A is a class of 1,002 New York City Subway cars built by Alstom Transportation.

About

The R160A base order was part of a $961,687,121 contract funded in part by a grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The R160 is designed to operate on the New York City Transit Authority's lettered lines (B Division), and intended to replace older subway cars. Some of these older subway cars have been in service since 1964. The primary base order of the R160 class consisted of 660 cars. The order was broken into R160A and R160B classes because the cars are built by different manufacturers.

Alstom assembled 1,002 R160A cars at its manufacturing plant in Hornell, New York, while Kawasaki assembled 660 R160B cars at its plant in Yonkers, New York.

The R160A base order of 400 cars (8313-8712) is further broken down into two different sets. R160A-1 sets are built in 4-car sets and are running on the BMT's Eastern Division (J, L, M, and Z services) because the platform lengths where these services operate cannot accommodate longer trains. The R160A-2 sets are built in five-car sets for use on IND and BMT main line services.

Delivery Notes & Line Assignments

As of June 2010, R160A-1s 8313-8652 and 9943-9974 are in service on the J, L, M, and Z trains while R160A-2s 8653-8712 are on the N and Q trains. R160A-2s 9233-9802 are in service on the E and F trains..8583-9827 is for R to run.

On November 10, 2008, the MTA exercised Option Order II for 242 R160A that are broken down into 32 cars arranged as 4-car sets (9943-9974) and 210 cars arranged in 5-car sets (9593-9802).

Alstom has delivered all 1,002 cars as of May 2010, all of which are in active revenue service.

Features

File:75px-NYCS-R160-bull-trans-W svg.png

Depiction of front route display

One of the major changes and highlights of the new cars is the addition of the electronic "FIND" (Flexible Information and Notice Display), which includes an LCD screen displaying the route, route information and advertisements, and a tri-color (red, yellow, green) LED strip map which displays the next ten stations, plus five consecutive "further stops" to riders. There are three of these in every car. The display updates the stations at every stop, also giving the number of stops to each station listed, and replaces a plastic card which had a set route and stations printed on, which was used on the R142, R142A/S, and R143 cars. This allows for instant route or line changes with the correct information, which includes, but is not limited to, omitting of certain stops.

The R160A also feature unique door motors, which are not featured on the R160B. When the doors are opening and closing, they emit a whirring sound, similar to the M7 railcar units found on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North.

64 R160A-1's are being retrofitted with CBTC compatibility for operation on the L with the R143's. Cars 8313-8376 have been set aside for this retrofit. This was expected to be completed by August 2010. However, the completion date has been pushed back to February 2011.

Each R160A and R160B car is being purchased for $1.28 million USD.

Differences between the R160A and R160B cars

While the two models are almost identical to each other, there are some slight differences between the two cars.

• The R160B's car door window rims are glossier than the R160A's doors.
• The R160A doors emit a noticeable whirring sound when they open and close, while the R160B doors are usually silent. This sound is similar to the door motors on the LIRR and MNRR M-7 Railcars and the new PATH PA-5 railcars.
  • This is due to the fact that the R160A's use Vapor door motors while the R160B's use Fuji door motors.
• All R160A traction motors were constructed by Alstom while the R160Bs are split between Alstom traction motors and Siemens traction motors (once 660 order is complete, 400 Alstom cars and 260 Siemens cars). These two brands of traction motors have noticeably different sounds. Alstom cars (8713-8842, 9103-9232, 9803-9942) have stepped sounds while Siemens (8843-9102) has a smoother, rolling sound. All three sets of cars (R160A-2, R160B Alstom, and R160B Siemens) are interoperable.

Differences between the R143 and R160A-1 cars

The R160A-1 is almost identical to the R143 class of cars used on the L train. However, there are differences between the two:

• The R143s have standard plastic card route maps instead of FIND displays like the R160A-1 units.
• The American flag on the ends of the A-unit cars is positioned differently in relation to the MTA New York City Subway logo. On the R143, the flag is below the NYCS logo. On the R160A-1, it is above the logo.
• The two types have different traction motors. The R143s have Bombardier traction motors (like the R142A) while the R160A-1s have Alstom traction motors (like the R142).
• The doors between the cars are different. On the R143, there is a single door. On the R160A-1, there are a pair of sliding doors.
• The taillights on the R143s use incandescent bulbs with reflectors, and the R160(A/B) taillights use LEDs with their characteristic dot-matrix look.

Production problems

Early on in the order, Alstom encountered significant production problems since being awarded the base contract. In July 2005, Alstom missed its contractual deadline to deliver a 10-car test train, which arrived five months late in December, to the New York City Transit Authority. Alstom requested three additional months to deliver the test train. In addition, the Transit Authority rejected several car shells made in a plant in Lapa, Brazil, near São Paulo, after discovering welding defects. Since then, these problems have been fixed.

Recently however, there has been a ongoing strike at Renold since September 2009, which supplies the gearboxes for Alstom's propulsion units. Because of this, delivery was expected to slow down a bit until the strike ended.

Delivery problems

Early on in the order, Alstom was also behind on its delivery schedule. Alstom was to have delivered 200 out of the 400 car base order by September 2007. However, by that month, Alstom had only delivered 80 cars. Under the base contract, Alstom agreed to pay damages of $800 a day for late deliveries of four-car trains, and $1,000 a day for five-car trains. However, the Transit Authority had not yet fined Alstom for its late deliveries and was negotiating with Alstom to accelerate their delivery schedule. The 200 cars were delivered 7 months late in early April. Since then, the problems have been solved.

See also

• R143 (New York City Subway car)
• R160B (New York City Subway car)

External links

• nycsubway.org: R160 cars
• New York City Subway Car Datasheet
• Train Set Assignments