The first of four state-of-the-art subway trains went into service on the G train Tuesday, a substantial upgrade for the cross-borough line connecting Brooklyn and Queens.
The train — which was taken out of service on the C line in order to be deployed on the G line — is one of the few in the system to have a so-called “open gangway” design, in which all five cars are connected via an articulated section and passengers can move freely between them.
The design, known internally as the “R211T,” was first tested on the C line last year.
NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said Tuesday that the design was particularly suited to the G train, where shorter trains stop in the middle of long platforms.
“Everyone that’s taken the G train knows the experience of hustling down the platform to make that train,” Crichlow said. “You get to the last car of the train, and then the train is just a little bit crowded in that one last car.
“No more,” he said. “Open gangways are open from end to end.”
Tuesday also marks the first time that an open gangway car was put into passenger service along a line with a significant elevated portion. Proponents of the design say open gangway cars could reduce incidents of subway surfing by eliminating easy access to the train’s exterior.
A second five-car R211T train is scheduled to begin running on the G line on Wednesday, and another two are due in service by June — all taken from the two 10-car trains that have up until now been running on the C line.
Together, the four five-car trains will account for nearly a third of the 13 trains that typically wear the green “G” bullet.
But while a third of the G train fleet is set to soon be modernized, the remaining nine will continue to be some of the oldest in operation.
Crichlow said Tuesday that the MTA is still trying to locate a mysterious track defect that’s been wearing out the wheels on R160 train cars running on the E, F and R lines.
As first reported by the Daily News, the MTA moved all the modern R160 cars off of the G line in January to backstop the E, F and R lines — which use a computerized signaling system — while those trains’ wheels were being repaired.
Since the G line is expected to continue using its older signaling system for at least another two years, the MTA has been running older R46 and R68 train sets to free up R160s for the E, F and R lines.
In January, transit officials said the measure was temporary, and that the R160 cars would be back on the G by the end of March. Crichlow said Tuesday that that was unlikely.
“The plan at this point is just to introduce the two R211 open gangway [trains] and then within the next two months you’ll have an additional two trains,” he said. “Then the goal is, over the next capital program, the [new] R211s that we will be getting, a portion of them will come to the G line.”
Sources familiar with the hunt to find the track defect confirmed to The News Tuesday that the efforts were ongoing, but the source of the wheel wear has yet to be found.
The decision to send all 20 of the MTA’s open gangway cars to the G train means they will no longer be operating on the C line, at least until more arrive. The transit agency announced last year that it had ordered 80 additional R211Ts as part of a 435-car purchase option from train-builder Kawasaki.
Traditional “closed gangway” R211A cars currently make up the bulk of service on the A and C lines.