First M-8 railcars roll on Metro-North

MTA Metro-North New Haven Line riders on Tuesday welcomed the first set of new M-8 cars supplied by Kawasaki and featuring technological advances designed to eliminate some of the problems that have plagued the line in this harshest winter in recent memory. The first train of new cars rolled out of Stamford, Conn., at 10:30 a.m. and arrived on time in Grand Central Terminal at 11:36 a.m.

The cars are the first of an initial 300-car order costing $761 million, shared 65% by the State of Connecticut and 35% by the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The contract contained two options for additional cars. The contract for the first 42-car option was signed Feb. 18 for $90 million. A second 38-car option was funded at $81 million on Feb. 24 by the Connecticut Bond Commission with additional money from the MTA Capital Program. The average price per car is $2.23 million.

“These cars have successfully completed extensive, systematic tests. The many challenges that were revealed during intensive, real-world operations of the most complex railcar in North America on the continent’s busiest rail corridor have been resolved,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut. 

“I am thrilled to be able to introduce a new era of comfort and reliability for New Haven Line riders,” said Jeff Parker, Connecticut’s Transportation Commissioner. “Even a single eight-car train set will help alleviate crowding and bring hope to our beleaguered New Haven Line customers. These cars are the first of the new breed of technologically advanced trains that will serve us for decades to come.”

The New Haven Line will have 26 M-8 cars in service by this spring. The rollout will continue at a rate of about 10 cars a month until all 380 cars are in service in the third quarter of 2013.

MTA said the M-8 car was engineered to replicate closely the advances that were made with the M-7 cars currently in operation in New York State on Metro-North’s Harlem and Hudson Lines and on the Long Island Rail Road. “In the M-8, critical, solid-state, computer-controlled electrical components are protected within the car body rather than exposed under the car so that inclement weather will not interfere with their operation,” said the agency.

Industrial designer Cesar A. Vergara, principal of Vergara Studio, designed both the exterior and interior of the M-8. 

“ConnDOT required the cars to embrace the latest industrial design.” Vergara said. Then with Jacobs, Vergara was sub-contracted by LTK, the project’s engineering consultant. His mission was to develop “a world-class industrial design or the M8 fleet,” he said. “An intense period of conceptual design proposals was followed by extensive customer research in whichthe various concepts were presented to passengers who travel the New Haven Line at different times and between different station pairs. Senior management at Metro-North ConnDOT directed me to complete a finished industrial design proposal. This included the exterior, interior, and materials, as well as a concept for the M8 Café Car. All were incorporated in the bid specifications provided to manufacturers. Kawasaki was awarded the contract and is manufacturing the railcars in Kobe, Japan and Lincoln, Neb.”

The M-8’s design features include:
     • A high-centered stacked headlight shrouded in a half pipe that continues into the roof uperstructure, “encapsulating the shape of the front and superstructure into a coherent and signature design.

    • An oval lighting system in the welcoming vestibule.

     • Curved interior architecture

     • “Comfortable, ample seats providing greater leg room without increased seat pitch, surrounded by a
soothing palette of colors.”

     • Baggage racks designed with a gently curved front between supports, “lending a sense of gracious
architecture and breaking the monotony of the rectilinear interior.”