MTA opens rail-car testing facility

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) this week opened a rail-car processing and testing facility near the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in preparation for new subway cars purchased for New York City Transit.

The MTA is buying more than 1,500 new R211 and R268 subway cars at a cost of $11 billion that eventually will replace the decades-old R46 and R68 models. The investment is MTA's largest in new rolling stock since the 1980s, authority officials said in a press release. 

The new testing facility can receive subway cars via truck, rail and boat. Once delivered, the rail cars will be linked together for testing and commissioning on the facility's in-house tracks, MTA officials said. Before entering revenue service,  the cars will undergo testing on the subway network, which is connected to the facility. The facility also can  process and test locomotives and rolling stock for the MTA's other passenger railroads. 

"The facility consolidates work that was once spread amongst different yards and unites it all under one roof," said MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer. A total construction cost was not included in the press release.

Of the new R211 subway cars, 750 have been delivered and another 860 are still to arrive, MTA officials said. They are currently in use on the Staten Island Railway and the A, B, C and G Lines. There are plans to add the R211 cars to the D Line and Rockaway Park Shuttle service within the next two years. 

MTA's board last month approved the purchase of 378 new R268 subway cars, which have many of the same amenities as the R211 cars. They will serve NYCT's B division lines beginning in 2028. The capital plan also calls for the purchase of new cars for the A division. All the new subway cars will be integrated with communications-based train control, MTA officials said.