My thoughts on the R211s after over a year

The R211s, NYC's newest class of subway car, has been in service since March 2023. As such, at long last, I think it is time to talk about them. But to understand what I am saying, we have to understand what the R211s are.

The R211s are new technology trains (trains with automated announcements and other modern features), but they have many upgrades over older trains, including wider doors, full color displays, lights and text saying which side the doors will open on, a full display of the station you are arriving at, and most importantly, open gangways! But of course, that does not leave them without fault. At the start of their time in service, the displays were buggy and had to be reverted back to the old system. The open gangways, however, are great, especially the soft shell, which allows passengers a 10% increase in standing room. Some people have complained that if there is a bad smell in one car such as someone smoking, it will carry over to the other car, but those complaints have no clout. In fact, if anything, the open gangways will help with the issue, as they provide better ventilation and one can get to another car. Anyhow though, while these trains are massive improvements over older trains, they do still have their issues.

Because of the petty way that the MTA and perhaps Kawasaki, the builders of these cars, do things, they do not allow us to have plug doors, which are doors that come out and then open along the side of the train instead of inside it. This shortens the length of windows. In older trains with thinner doors, this is a non-issue, but with the wider doors, it becomes a problem. Also, the font on displays is larger then it needs to be. Because of this, many longer station names need to be split up. In addition, the fact that the MTA needed to test out the open gangways on only 20 cars in disappointing, as they have already been tested in other places and are fine for use in all trains. Hopefully, the second option order will be open gangway trains, as we know the first option order is not. I am not trying to say that the R211s are bad trains, as they are honestly quite the improvement over older trains. In conclusion, the R211s are very good trains, but they could use some improvement. I am very excited to see how the trains on Staten Island turn out!

` If you are interested in seeing these great trains for yourself, here is a tour of the R211s and here is a ride on the open gangways.