The R143 is a class of new technology New York City Subway cars built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries for the B Division. Delivered between 2001 and 2003, the cars displaced R40/As and R42s that operated on the in conjunction with the BMT Canarsie Line's signal system being automated. The R143 was the first "B" Division order of the NTT series, and the first 60-foot B Division car built for the New York City Subway system since 1969. A total of 212 cars were built, all arranged as four-car sets. First delivered in late 2001, they entered a 30-day period of revenue service testing on December 4, 2001, and officially entered service on the Canarsie Line on February 12, 2002. By March 2003, all cars had been delivered.
Description and features
The R143s are numbered 8101–8312. The 212 cars were expected to provide enough service for years, but the fast growth of the Williamsburg neighborhood overloaded the L by mid-2006. The R143s are the first 60-foot B Division cars built for the New York City Subway system since the R42 from 1969, the first NTT model for the B Division, and the first automated fleet in the subway system. They are currently based at East New York Yard. The R143s are similar to the slightly newer R160s; however, the two-car types cannot be used interchangeably. Like the R142s, R142As and R188s, the R143s feature electronic strip maps, depicting all stops on the L route. Unlike the rest of the NTT fleet, the R143s are equipped with interior LED screens, which take the place of the MTA Arts for Transit cards that are usually located there. These screens can display advertisements, public safety announcements, and other information. Several R160s were similarly retrofitted with LCD screens after they were delivered. However, the LCD screens on the R160s have the capability to display multiple colors instead of only red, orange, and green.
History
Timeline of contract
The contract for the R143 was put out for bidding in January 1998. The initial contract called for 100 sixty-foot cars that would come in five-car sets. The new cars would be expected to have automatic PA announcements, high efficiency lighting, emergency intercom and customer alarms, AC propulsion motors, speedometers and event recorders, electronic information display signs, artwork, a central diagnostics monitoring system, microprocessor controlled air compressor, brake and communication systems, roof mounted microprocessor controlled HVAC, and to be compliant with ADA requirements. Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. was awarded a $190 million contract for 100 new B Division cars in late December 1998, with an option for 112 more cars. The new design was based on the A Division'sR142A, which Kawasaki also built, and incorporated many features from the R110A and R110B prototypes. The cars were built with an average cost of about $1.5 million per car.
Delivery
Delivery of the cars began in late 2001. A 30-day revenue acceptance testing with one train of eight cars began on December 4, 2001. According to Kawasaki, the test was "extremely successful". The cars began running on the Canarsie Line on February 12, 2002, where they have been assigned to. All 212 cars were delivered by March 2003. Along with displacing older equipment from the Canarsie Line, the R143s also displaced the R42s on the now-extended weekend shuttle service on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, when that line became the first BMT Eastern Division line to be placed in a weekend One Person Train Operation service. The R143s on the M were later displaced by the R160As in February 2008. OPTO service was also tested on the L during mid-2005, but it ended due to safety issues.
Post-delivery
Cars 8205–8212 were originally delivered with experimental Siemens traction motors to test the traction motors that would be later found in R160B cars 8843–9102. These cars were eventually refitted with the Bombardier MITRAC traction motors found on all other R143s. On June 21, 2006, an eight-car R143 train overshot the bumper at the end of the tracks in the Canarsie Yard after the operator suffered a seizure. The first car, 8277, suffered significant damage and was stripped of damaged parts before being sent to the Kawasaki plant in Yonkers to receive repairs. The other cars in the set suffered minor body damage and were moved to the 207th Street Yard and repaired. Eventually, 8277 was sent back to New York City Transit property and repaired. By 2016, car 8277 was finally recoupled with 8278–8280, but the consist needed component upgrades to become operational. The set returned to service in December 2017. In 2017, a set of R143s was equipped with measuring gauges to test out the curve radius and gangway flex in the existing 60-foot-long cars in order to collect data for evaluating the future R211T order.
