Вагон метро R62: История и характеристики нью-йоркской модели

Class of 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, for the A Division. A total of 325 cars were built, originally as single units. When the reliability of the fleet improved, they were converted to five car sets. The cars replaced the remaining R12s, R14s, and R15s, which were all retired by the end of 1984. The R62 was the first order of A Division cars in 20 years (following the R36 order 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 officially entered service on May 7, 1984. The R62s are scheduled to remain in service until the late 2020s, when they will be replaced with the R262s.

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 since 1969. They continued a controversial interior design by employing bucket seating, which was very narrow, with each seat being about wide. This reduced the number of seats per car when compared to standard bench seating, but allowed for higher standing capacity. The R62s have full width cabs at each end of each five car set, but retain intermediate half width cabs in the remaining cab positions, as the trains were originally built as single cars. In 1966, the Budd Company proposed a lightweight R39 subway car, similar to their M 3 (A49/A50/A51) cars then in use on the Philadelphia Transportation Company's (now SEPTA) Market–Frankford Line in Philadelphia, for the oldest elevated IRT and BMT lines; however, this proposal failed because most of the remaining elevated lines were subsequently closed and demolished instead. In 1973, another proposal to replace the R12 through R17 series was deferred because not enough voters approved it. each of which were to be 64 feet (20 m) long. The selected plan called for 325 51.4 feet (16 m) IRT cars instead. In July 1981, the NYCTA began the bidding process for 325 cars under the R62 contract.

The cars entered revenue testing on the on November 29, 1983, and were also tested on the , , and trains. The remaining five cars of the consist (cars 1431–1434 and 1438) are now unitized. On December 21, 1994, disgruntled computer analyst Edward J. Leary firebombed a crowded 4 train at Fulton Street. Car 1391 suffered interior damage, but was repaired and returned to service. A little more than three years later, however, on February 3, 1998, cars 1391–1395, while out of service, was rear ended by another out of service train of R33s at the 239th Street Yard. All five cars suffered anticlimber damage, but were repaired and returned to service. On October 25, 2000, during the 2000 World Series, a 4 train collided head on with a work train at the Fordham Road station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line in the Bronx. Car 1369 and one half of 1370 were damaged beyond repair. Car 1366 and the undamaged half of car 1370 were donated to the FDNY Randall's Island training center, where they are used as training cars along with R40A 4461. Meanwhile, cars 1367 and 1368 were reefed in February 2008.

Though no R62s were retired by replacement, the aforementioned accidents 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. In January 2019, the MTA announced that it would be replacing the R62/A fleets with the R262s, a new fleet that would be ordered as part of a future capital program.