Perpetually Bumpy C Line May Get New Cars In 2017

The outdated, infrequent and bumpy C line train cars will be replaced some time in 2017, if what Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) spokesperson Kevin Ortiz told WNYC‘s Kate Hinds is true.

“We anticipate the new R-179s, when they do arrive, to be assigned to the C, J, Z and some on the A line,” he told me earlier this month.

When I asked him what changed [from when he said the new cars hadn’t yet been assigned], he said, “Nothing’s changed, I just got an update. Again, this is something that’s been years in the making.”

This is great news for C-line commuters across the city, including in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bed-Stuy, where demand and congestion have increased as the population has increased, and where wait-times — particularly at stations such as Clinton-Washington and Kingston Throop — have risen by 10 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, between 2012 and 2013.

Apparently, the good news wasn’t always guaranteed, either (and still might not be, as our collective spidey-sense as New Yorkers and straphangers cautions), as the MTA considered the C line’s growth to be “on par” with system-wide growth of approximately 2.7 percent versus 2.4 percent for all subway lines, and not warranting the extra two cars it would need to even match the A and E lines’ capacity.

“Based on our guidelines,” said Ortiz, “there really isn’t a need to run a full 600-foot train along the C.” Ortiz says the line has the second-lowest ridership in the system, after the G train. But even if the MTA determined that ridership on the C warranted the extra cars, “we don’t have them,” he said.

But it has been 60 years since the C line got new train cars — stainless steel “Brightliners” also known by their model number, the R-32s — and nothing about them has changed since.

There are only 222 R-32s left from the original fleet of 600, so the MTA doesn’t have the rolling stock to spare. But Ortiz says there continues to be “ample capacity” on the C train.

What is still in service is limping along. The Brightliners are the oldest cars in the MTA’s fleet and right now the number of miles the cars can run before breaking down is about six times lower than the MTA’s best-performing cars. That means that a Brightliner can only travel about 58,397 miles before needing repair, unlike the R-160 which can travel about 378,346 miles.

Hopefully the new R-179s will make a difference. And when they do arrive, the old R-32s will be split between the New York City Transit Museum and being stripped by the MTA’s Asset Recovery division into items that can be sold as memorabilia, like stanchion poles, subway seats, and signage.