New York Gov, Kathy Hochul announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has approved the purchase of more than 300 modern railcars
The M-9A passenger railcars will be allocated to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) fleet and the Metro-North Railroad, Hochul said. Officials said MTA negotiated certain aspects of the purchase to reduce both the production and delivery schedules that will result in a time savings of 11 months, and a reduction in cost of nearly 15 percent. The contract for $2.3 billion covers the design, manufacture, testing, furnishing and delivery of the railcars to be built at Alstom Transportation’s facility in New York state.
“New Yorkers deserve a fast, reliable and comfortable transit system. We are delivering that today through the purchase of modern railcars for the LIRR and Metro-North fleets,” Hochul said. “The commuter rails are a lifeline for riders in one of the world’s largest and busiest transit systems — this is how we continue to achieve record on-time performance.”
All of the cars will be delivered by 2032, with the pilot cars to be delivered in 2029, and put into service by 2030. The M-9A cars will replace Metro-North’s M-3 cars that are beyond their service life, officials said. LIRR will retire the M-3 cars upon delivery.
“We’re looking to buy almost 2,000 rail cars as part of the new Capital Plan — $10.9 billion worth — and this 300+ order gets us off to a strong start,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said. “I want to thank Governor Hochul for her work to secure the funding that made it possible.”