Around the Horn

Nothing official, just speculation since the R262s are replacing the R62/As

Well the situation is basically this: among the Coney Island lines (and by proxy the as well) someone is getting the R211s and someone is getting the R68/As and R160s 6th Avenue is next for CBTC after 8th Avenue and before Broadway which means its more likely that the will get the R211s and the will have the remaining R68/As and round out the fleet with R160s (and then receive R268s or whatever number they assign the R68/A replacements). However that does not necessarily rule out the reverse ( R68/As, R211s). I would prepare for either eventuality but lean on the former rather than the latter. Barring a change of heart amongst RTO (which I mean its RTO, anything is possible) the is out of the running as it would be receiving 4 car R160s or R179s for 480' trains.

The 8 car R179s are specifically getting CBTC installed so that they can run on the temporarily and then transfer over to the when Crosstown CBTC is ready. It said as much in the contract. I hope this also answers your previous question in regards to R179s on the

The 4 car R211s are for additional trains for service expansion now that they have added additional electrical capacity.

That was the plan though...

It would not because aside from the optics of sending over old cars they just spent a ton of money rebuilding Clifton Shops to handle NTTs and improving both track and substations just for the R211S fleet.

I can hear the "If you're feeling flu-like symptoms please wear a mask or face covering that covers your nose or mouth for your entire trip. Help us to keep NY healthy" PSA in my head already

They are hiring but it's not as publicized. SIR was accepting applicants for engineer and conductor two years running (didn't see anything last year for obvious reasons)

There is also Brighton express on weekends and nights for EMI testing as well

Pure nonsense; pay it no mind

As I recall it was someone emailing them about Redbirds hoping to save one for a museum and they were scrapped afterward.

It was definitely a conscious design change at some point since the mockup R143 had them

3400-4039 is exactly the same amount of cars as option 1 which is why I think they'll use it. Any R32s on the property by then can just get a 1 in front of the number like the Redbirds did when the R160 option orders came in since they would most likely only see use as work trains.

In my personal opinion I see 3400-4886 for the R211s when all is said and done with the R262s using 5201-6300 and then the 1000s vacated by the R62s they would be replacing. I could then see a R68/A replacement contract using the 2000s.

I'm pretty sure Kawasaki does not have the space nor personnel to produce all these extra R211s. They were already considered pretty much out of the running for the R262 contract...

I'm just speculating but I think its far more likely we see XE60 orders for these routes... Conversion of several depots to electric operations was in the 2020-2024 Capital Program (of course its now a question of what actually gets funding in a post pandemic world)

For the long 12 car trains yes. The sneaky thing they do is designate half of them as assistant conductors, so while in actuality you have 8 crew members on a train, if you were to ask LIRR they'll tell you no we only have four (because the other four are assistants)

Showtime dancers? on LIRR? You know full well that's never happening regardless... The elephant in the room is that with the MTA's finances they won't have any service if it continues to cost over $400 million to staff extra conductors on trains. The peak direction 9-5 Central Business District commuter ridership model that both LIRR and Metro-North are intended for is just simply not economically sustainable anymore in a world with WFH, multiple CBDs in the region, reverse peak commuting, staggered shifts, and increases in off-peak usage. And that's not even considering the money set on fire each day on storing trains off peak (the average LIRR train spends 18 hours sitting in the yard each day) and paying full crews a minimum of 8 hours even if they only work a single peak period etc, etc. A shift to a proof-of-payment fare model is pretty much the only way we'll see significant improvements in LIRR/MNR service because it costs so much to crew trains. Reducing crew sizes now opens up opportunities for them to spend more on operations adding more trips to the schedules.

If they are in training and it says not in service, then the OMNY reader is doing its job

Court Square is the bottleneck in that scenario. That layup track as crossover really slows things down.

Well about that story... this is not that far off from pre-pandemic...

CBTC on Queens Blvd was never about ridership. CBTC is now the defacto standard for signalling replacements which is why Culver is getting it.

I believe those two routes had adjustments to overnight service effective that date.

was on QM2 yesterday though

There is a “9999” on the M2 heading to the East Village as we speak (I assume a bustime error but stranger things have happened)