R62 (New York City Subway car)

The R62 is a New York City Subway car model built between 1983 and 1985 by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Kobe, Japan. A total of 325 cars were built, originally as single units, and later converted into five-car sets. The cars replaced the remaining R12s, R14s, and R15s, which were all retired by the end of 1984.

R62
An R62 train on the 3 line
Interior of an R62 car
In service	1984-Present
Manufacturer	Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Assembly	Kobe, Japan
Family name	SMEE
Replaced	All remaining R12s, R14s and R15s
Constructed	1983–1985
Entered service	November 29, 1983 (revenue service testing) May 7, 1984 (official service)
Number built	325
Number in service	315
Number scrapped	8
Fleet numbers	1301–1625
Operator(s)	New York City Subway
Depot(s)	240th Street Yard, Livonia Yard
Specifications
Car length	51.04 feet (15.56 m)
Width	8.60 feet (2,621 mm)
Height	11.89 feet (3,624 mm)
Maximum speed	55 mph (89 km/h)
Track gauge	1,435mm

The R62 was the first order of A Division cars in 20 years (following the R36 orders from 1963), and the first stainless steel subway car built for the A Division. The first cars entered revenue service testing on November 29, 1983, and completed it on May 7, 1984. The R62s will remain in service until they are replaced by the R262s.

Description

The R62s are numbered 1301–1625, totaling 325 cars. Each car was purchased at an average price of US$918,293.

The R62 was the first stainless steel and air-conditioned subway car built for the A Division. A graffiti-resistant glaze was applied to all of the cars because of the extensive graffiti tagging of nearly all of the subway cars in the system. They continued a controversial interior design by employing bucket seating. This reduced the number of seats per car when compared to standard bench seating, but allowed for more standing space. This design originated with the R44 and continued until the R68A order. Five cars in the order (1587–1591) were built with bench seating after complaints by passengers. The R62s have full-width cabs at the end of each set, but retain intermediate half-width cabs in the remaining cab positions from their original appearance. The R62s also brought back the much more reliable SMEE braking system after an absence from subway cars last used on the R42s in 1969, due to the implementation of a different braking system called P-wire originally found on the R44 and R46 fleets.

Currently, all R62s are maintained at the Livonia Yard in Brooklyn and assigned to the 3 line, with an additional set being assigned to the 1 line.

History

Car Order

After the R36 cars were delivered in 1963–1964, no more IRT cars were built for another 20 years. Several subway car orders were proposed during this time. In 1973, a proposal to replace the R12 through R17 series was deferred because not enough voters approved it. Finally, in 1979, with the bus and train fleets in poor shape, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) looked into solutions to replace the oldest IRT cars (the R12s, R14s, R15s, and R17s) and to rebuild the newer (at the time) IRT cars (R21s and beyond). A bond issue for 136 new IRT cars was approved, and funds were gathered for 1,014 new IRT cars in 1981. These cars were referred to as the "R62" contract. The R62 order was originally proposed as an order of 260 cars, which were going to be 64 feet (20 m) long. The selected plan called for 325 51.4-foot (15.7 m) IRT cars instead.

In July 1981, the bidding process began for 325 cars under the R62 contract. Nissho-Iwai American Corp, the parent company of Japanese train car builder Kawasaki Heavy Industries, was the lowest bidder, while the American Budd Company submitted a high bid for the initial contract and a low bid for the rest of the cars. The NYCTA did not want to award the large contract to a single builder, due to previous issues with the R46 contract.

The R62 contract was ordered on April 12, 1982, and awarded to Kawasaki Heavy Industries. This was the first time a foreign company was chosen to build cars for the New York City Subway.

Delivery

The cars entered revenue testing on the 4 line, and were also tested on the 2, 5, and 7 lines before that. Soon after delivery, the cars also proved themselves much less prone to breakdowns than previous rolling stock. All 325 cars were in service by August 1985, making the 4 line the first entirely graffiti-free line in the subway in many years.

Kawasaki did not wish to build extra cars the MTA wanted under the different contract dubbed "R62A", for the same price per car. Bombardier Transportation won a contract to supply these additional 825 cars under a license from Kawasaki instead.

Replacement

Though no R62s have been retired by replacement, accidents have caused the premature retirement of ten cars. The remaining cars are expected to be replaced starting around the late 2020s. The MTA proposed mid-life technological upgrades for the R62s in 2010, including LED destination signs and automated announcements. These upgrades have not been executed.

In January 2019, the MTA announced that it would be replacing the R62/A fleets with the "R262" contract, a new fleet that will be ordered as part of a future capital program.