The recent incident of 97 NYC Transit subway car windows smashed across 45 different trains on the B, D, F, N, Q and W lines raises more questions for MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and NYC Transit President Richard Davey.
Most of the NYC Transit subway car fleet has been paid for by Federal Transit Administration grants. The FTA requires the MTA to have a Fleet Management Plan. It has to be updated everytime there is a new subway car procurement. FTA allows the MTA NYC Transit to have peak, spare and reserve fleets. The current NYC Transit fleet of approximetly 5,900 cars is divided into the A Division (numbered routes) and B Division (lettered routes).
Equipment in these two divisions is not interchangeable. Within the B Division, there are peak, off-peak, overnight and weekend numbers of car and train requirements for each route to meet service. Peak service requirements in the AM and PM rush hours require the most equipment.
The MTA & NYC Transit maintained that they did not have enough spare windows in stock to quickly make all the window repairs after the recent incident. Was there any attempt to uncouple the damaged cars from trains leaving the remaining cars to form new eight or 10 car train sets? Why did NYC Transit not have enough spare cars and train sets to replace those taken out of service?
The NYC Transit Fleet Management Plan would tell us how many spare cars and train sets were available. FTA also allows provisions for a Reserve Fleet. Could this have been used to supplement both peak and spare vehicles? This fleet is not active, but is periodically maintained. It is suppose to be available to press into service during unforeseen emergencies such as this.
Does the MTA & NYC Transit need to expand its spare fleet of cars and train sets to deal with periodic crisis such as this in the future? Perhaps instead of disposing of all the old cars being replaced by new vehicles, those in better condition should be added to either the spare or reserve fleets.  If they don’t have a reserve fleet, one should be established.
The same issues may apply to the Long Island Rail Road, MetroNorth Rail Road and Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority as well. If they don’t have a reserve fleet, one should be established. Commuters, taxpayers, elected officials and transit advocates deserve answers to these very valid questions. .
Larry Penner
Great Neck
Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously served as a former Director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management.
