Transit Authority
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Q: Which are the oldest subway cars still in use?
The oldest cars are the R32s, which run on the A, C, E, and F lines. Manufactured between 1963 and 1965 by the Budd Co. of Philadelphia, the R32 was the first stainless-steel car built for the New York City subway. It can be recognized by the ribbed, stainless-steel siding that covers the sides from top to bottom. Don’t confuse the R32s with the R38s, introduced in 1966, which have the ribbed siding only up to the windows.
The R32s were completely rebuilt in the late 1980s, and while they now travel more than 100,000 miles between breakdowns, they remain notorious for being much noisier than newer cars. Still, unlike the R38s, which are expected to be retired in 2007, the R32s have no retirement date.
The Budd Co. won the contract to introduce stainless-steel cars to the subways with a low-ball bid of $117,000 in 1963. Unsure what the cost of refurbishment was, a spokesman for New York City Transit, Charles Seaton, said it would have been considerably less than the $1.5 million a car the authority paid for the new R142s, introduced in 2000. Those cars, which feature an automated intercom system, run on the 2, 4, and 5 lines, and the nearly identical R142A is featured on the 6 line.
