R62 (New York City Subway car)

After the R36 cars were delivered in 1963–1964, no more IRT cars were built for another 20 years. Several rolling stock orders were proposed for the IRT during this time.[4] In 1966, a lightweight R39 subway car, similar to the ones used on the Market–Frankford Line in Philadelphia, was proposed for the oldest elevated IRT and BMT lines; however, this proposal failed because most of the remaining elevated lines were closed, and demolished instead. In 1973, another proposal to replace the R12 through R17 series was deferred because not enough voters approved it.[4] Finally, in 1979, with the bus and train fleets in poor and decrepit shape, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) looked into capital maintenance and bond acts to replace the oldest IRT cars (the R12s, R14s, R15s, and R17s) and to rebuild and refurbish newer (at the time) IRT cars (R21s and beyond). A bond issue for 136 new IRT cars was approved, and funds were procured for another new 1,014 IRT cars in 1981. These cars were referred to as the "R62" contract.[4] The R62 order was originally proposed as an order of 260 64-foot (20 m) cars, but the selected plan called for 325 51.4-foot (15.7 m) IRT cars instead.

In July 1981, the NYCTA began the bidding process for 325 cars under the R62 contract.[4] Nissho-Iwai American Corp, the parent company of Japanese train car builder Kawasaki Heavy Industries, was the lowest bidder for the initial 325 cars, while American company Budd Company submitted a high bid for the initial contract and a low bid for the rest of the cars. The NYCTA did not want to award the large contract to a single builder, as it did in 1975–1978 with the R46s (which were plagued by mechanical problems and cracks in the chassis).[4]

The R62 contract was ordered on April 12, 1982, and awarded to Kawasaki Heavy Industries. This was the first time a foreign company was chosen to build cars for the New York City Subway.[4] Because a 1981 law now allowed the MTA and suppliers to broker contracts rather than accept the lowest bid, the MTA awarded the base contract to Kawasaki.[6]

The cars entered revenue testing on the 4 on November 29, 1983, and were also tested on the 2, 5, and 7 trains.[6] The cars entered service on May 7, 1984, as part of the Car Appearance Program. Soon after delivery, the cars also proved themselves much less prone to breakdowns than previous rolling stock.[6] All 325 cars were in service by August 1985, making the 4 the first entirely graffiti-free service in the system in many years.[6]

Kawasaki did not wish to build the additional cars the MTA wanted as a separate part of the R62 order, under contract R62A, for the same price per car. Bombardier Transportation, an Integrated Transportation rail car company headquartered in Montreal, won a contract to supply these additional 825 cars under a license from Kawasaki.[4][3][6]

On August 28, 1991, a sleep-deprived and intoxicated motorman caused a southbound 4 train to derail north of the 14th Street–Union Square station in Manhattan. The train was diverted from the express track to the local due to repairs, and the motorman sped through the switch at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h); as a result, the first car made the switch while several other cars in the consist did not. Five riders were killed, and several dozen were injured. Cars 1435–1437 and 1439–1440 were wrecked in this accident; cars 1435, 1437, and 1439–1440 were scrapped by 2001, while 1436 was reefed in February 2008.[7] The remaining five cars of the consist (cars 1431–1434 and 1438) are now unitized.[3][8]

On December 21, 1994, disgruntled computer analyst Edward J. Leary firebombed a crowded 4 train at Fulton Street. Car 1391 suffered interior damage, but was repaired and returned to service. A little more than three years later, however, on February 3, 1998, cars 1391–1395, while out of service, was rear-ended by another out-of-service train of R33s at the 239th Street Yard. All five cars suffered anticlimber damage, but were repaired and returned to service.

On October 25, 2000, during the 2000 World Series, an R62 4 train collided head-on with a work train at the Fordham Road station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line in the Bronx. Car 1369 and one half of 1370 were damaged beyond repair.[9] Car 1366 and the undamaged half of car 1370 were donated to the FDNY Randall's Island training center, where they are used as training cars along with R40A 4461. Meanwhile, cars 1367 and 1368 were reefed in February 2008.

Though no R62s were retired by replacement, the aforementioned accidents caused the premature retirement of ten cars.[10] The remaining cars are expected to be replaced starting in 2023 and lasting into 2026. The MTA proposed mid-life technological upgrades for the R62s in 2010, including LED destination signs and automated announcements.[11][12]

In January 2019, the MTA announced that it would be replacing the R62/A fleets with the R262s, a new fleet that would be ordered as part of a future capital program.[13]^:25