About 140 cars taken out of service…
By Philip Newman
The Transit Authority is checking over scores of new high-tech subway cars recently withdrawn from service in an effort to fix problems ranging from out-of-sync automatic announcements to door and braking glitches.
About 140 cars taken out of service last month were part of the first shipment of the new, state-of-the-art cars manufactured by the Japanese company Kawasaki and Bombardier of Canada.
A Transit Authority official said that among the problems found in the withdrawn cars were faulty automatic announcements and electronic maps, doors that either failed to completely close or became stuck and cars that did not brake as quickly as they should have.
Some of the new cars, designated R142 and R142A, are expected to replace the famous, 40-year-old redbird cars so familiar on the No. 7 line.
A number of the withdrawn cars have already been returned to the tracks.
The entire fleet of 1,080 futuristic subway cars built by Kawasaki and Bombardier at a cost of $1.4 million is expected to be in service within the next year.
