They aren’t scheduled to arrive until 2020, but the MTA wants to know what you think of the new subway car prototype that’s currently on display at Hudson Yards.
The R211 subway cars opened for tours on Thursday, and straphangers will be able to check them out at the 34th Street-Hudson Yards 7 line mezzanine through Wednesday. The prototype is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
MTA staffers will be on-site until Saturday to give tours and solicit feedback with a survey. Plus, straphangers can also tweet their opinions to @MTA or @NYCTSubway, leave a comment on facebook.com/MTANewYorkCityTransit or access the survey on mta.info.
The feedback “will be shared with the car’s designers and the Car Equipment Division of NYC Transit to help better inform how the cars are ultimately produced,” the MTA said.
What makes the R211 so special?
“Developing a first-in-class subway car is an essential part of modernizing our subway system,” MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said. “It is important that our subway customers provide their feedback in this process, and we hope they will do so after visiting the prototype. Ultimately, our customers will be riding these cars each day, and their input is very important.”
The R211 cars will have a door span of 58 inches, 8 inches wider than the current trains, and also feature digital displays with real-time service and station information, grab rails and double poles, better lighting and more.
Some of the cars will pilot what is known as an “open gangway” at the end of the cars, which are similar to the accordion-like design of the city’s Select Bus Service buses, which will enable riders to safely and freely move between cars to reduce crowding.
The cars will start being tested on the lettered subway lines and the Staten Island Railway in 2020.
Though the MTA won’t have the results of the customer feedback right away, here’s just some of what New Yorkers are already saying about the prototype on social media:
Can we spend more money on the tracks, timely service, and signal maintenance instead of making our trains look pretty? Sincerely, every commuting New Yorker.
— JJ (@JJDivvie) November 30, 2017
The paint job is nice, plain silver is outdated. Those large LCD information screens are very good, please keep that. Don’t skimp on quality. The rest of the world’s metro equipment is so far ahead, please catch up and, if possible, even surpass their quality and technology.
— John (@Airportus) December 1, 2017
