"If you've ridden the Staten Island Railway lately and felt like something was different-shinier, smoother, less "1970s basement paneling"-you're not imagining things. For the first time in half a century, the entire fleet is brand new. Every train rolling out of St. George is now an R211S, the MTA's gleaming new model that finally retires the creaky R44s that have been clattering along since 1973."
"The new R211S cars come tricked out with features that actually belong in this century: built-in security cameras, digital route displays, automated announcements that don't sound like they're phoning it in from the bottom of the harbor and doors that are eight inches wider to speed up boarding. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella called the upgrade "a welcome development for safety, accessibility, and comfort." It also means you might actually get on and off the train without a rugby scrum."
"The milestone was marked on Friday when NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow declared the last of the new trainsets in service, officially completing Staten Island's long-overdue glow-up. "It wasn't all-new cars two, three years ago. We had the R44 cars, which in their own right were great cars, but they were 50 years old," Crichlow said. (That's almost as long as the Verrazzano's been charging tolls, for reference.)"
The Staten Island Railway completed a fleet replacement, retiring R44 cars that had served since 1973 and putting R211S trainsets into full service. The R211S cars include built-in security cameras, digital route displays, automated announcements, brighter lighting, and doors eight inches wider to speed boarding. The new trains travel more than double the distance between mechanical breakdowns compared to the old fleet, reducing service disruptions. Officials marked the milestone as a safety, accessibility, and comfort improvement and emphasized faster boarding, smoother rides, and fewer breakdown-related delays for riders.
Read at Time Out New York
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