The MTA’s finance committee approved the $2.3 billion purchase of 316 new rail cars for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad on Monday.
The cars, designated as the M9A, will be designed and manufactured by Alstom Transportation, and are expected to enter service in 2030, with 160 trains going to the LIRR and 156 to Metro-North by 2032.
“These cars will replace the M3[A]s for Metro-North and allow Long Island Rail Road to retire the M3s which were replaced by the [2019] M9s but have been extended in their service,” said MTA car czar Tim Mulligan.
The M9A is long overdue. The MTA had initially planned to have 160 of the new train cars on hand for the start of LIRR service to Grand Central Madison in 2023.
Delays in that procurement, however, meant the LIRR pulled 100 1980s era M3 cars out of retirement to supplement the additional service to Grand Central Madison — primarily as shuttles between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal.
Monday’s contract includes options for anywhere between 100 and 242 additional cars in the future.
Two firms responded to the MTA’s initial solicitation in 2019: Bombardier Transit Corporation, and China Rail Rolling Stock Corporation, Mulligan said.
The procurement ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. During that time, Alstom acquired Bombardier. The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act then prohibited rolling stock purchases from firms owned or controlled by China and other foreign nations.
“Despite the fact that we were forced into this negotiation with a single car manufacturer, negotiations produced savings of $395 million,” Mulligan said.
