R62 (New York City Subway car)

The R62 is a New York City Subway car model built between 1983 and 1985 by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Kobe, Japan. A total of 325 cars were built, originally as single units, and later converted into five-car sets. The cars replaced the remaining R12s, R14s, and R15s, which were all retired by the end of 1984.

The R62 was the first order of A Division cars in 20 years (following the R36 orders from 1963), and the first stainless steel subway car built for the A Division. The first cars entered revenue service testing on November 29, 1983, and completed it on May 7, 1984. The R62s will remain in service until they are replaced by the R262s.

The R62s are numbered 1301–1625, totaling 325 cars. Each car was purchased at an average price of US$918,293.

The R62 was the first stainless steel and air-conditioned subway car built for the A Division. A graffiti-resistant glaze was applied to all of the cars because of the extensive graffiti tagging of nearly all of the subway cars in the system. They continued a controversial interior design by employing bucket seating. This reduced the number of seats per car when compared to standard bench seating, but allowed for more standing space. This design originated with the R44 and continued until the R68A order. Five cars in the order (1587–1591) were built with bench seating after complaints by passengers. The R62s have full-width cabs at the end of each set, but retain intermediate half-width cabs in the remaining cab positions from their original appearance. The R62s also brought back the much more reliable SMEE braking system after an absence from subway cars last used on the R42s in 1969, due to the implementation of a different braking system called P-wire originally found on the R44 and R46 fleets.

Currently, all R62s are maintained at the Livonia Yard in Brooklyn and assigned to the 3 line, with an additional set being assigned to the 1 line.

After the R36 cars were delivered in 1963–1964, no more IRT cars were built for another 20 years until the R62 got delivered. Several subway car orders were proposed during this time. In 1973, a proposal to replace the R12 through R17 series was deferred because not enough voters approved it. Finally, in 1979, with the bus and train fleets in poor shape, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) looked into solutions to replace the oldest IRT cars (the R12s, R14s, R15s, and R17s) and to rebuild the newer (at the time) IRT cars (R21s and beyond). A bond issue for 136 new IRT cars was approved, and funds were gathered for 1,014 new IRT cars in 1981. These cars were referred to as the "R62" contract. The R62 order was originally proposed as an order of 260 cars, which were going to be 64 feet (20 m) long. The selected plan called for 325 51.4-foot (15.7 m) IRT cars instead.

In July 1981, the bidding process began for 325 cars under the R62 contract. Nissho-Iwai American Corp, the parent company of Japanese train car builder Kawasaki Heavy Industries, was the lowest bidder, while the American 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, due to previous issues with the R46 contract.

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. As it says in the next part it was first assigned to the 4 train but then later on it was assigned to many different other lines like the 1 the 2 for a tiny bit the 5 the 6 and even the 7 and <7> and also the 3 but it did not last on 7 <7> and 6 train for long once the r62As first came and MTA was signing the contract they did not know what line to put it in because all of them already had there stainless steel cars but then MTA thought that the r62As could replace trains so that's what they did they replaced all r12s r14s and all r17s and like you saw earlier and they also decided to take out some R62s since it was meant for the irt but the all the irt lines had stainless steel cars which was the r62 they removed it from the 1 train 6 train and 7 train and <7> trains and put them there.

in 1990 MTA made a contract to kawasaki to make the r110As so they can test to see if there plan for the NTT would work and it actually was really popular and lived more than MTA expected anyway when they got delivered they were gonna run on the 2 train and even sometimes the 5 train which means they took away the a lot of the R62s for the 5 train that means there were not a lot of the 5 train r62s and then they finally got terminated when the r142 came.

In 1997 MTA made a contract with kawasaki to make new r142 cars to replace all the not stainless steel train types for the irt and in 1999 they got first delivered but the r142s replaced all R62s on the 5 and 4 trains and they took the ones that run on the 4 train to the 1 train it was temporary before it went to 3 train and they put the ones on the 5 train on the 3 train but then the 3 train was stuffed with train types so they put a bunch in yards some for work service and a little bit scrapped they scrapped 5 of them they put 48 in the yard and they put 23 to work service then finally the 3 train was not crowded but now MTA had to worry because the R62s population is almost gone and it only ran on the 3 train there are still some on the 1 train and such a tiny amount of R62s on the 7 and <7> and the 4 train only a little bit (but you might think its not not a lot but wait until you see when it goes downhill) but not a lot and its only been about 19 to 22 years.

Around 2000 or 2001 the r142As came in and they replaced all remaining R62 4 trains and then a little few years later they replaced all r62As on 6 train.

So you might have read this already but in 2010 they tried to put lcd designations on the R62s and r62As but for some reason never did.

In 2013 when there was not a lot of R62s running on the 7 and <7> the r188s came into service and then in 2014 MTA announced that all R62s and r62As on the 7 or <7> are gone and a few years after this is when the r142A replaced the remaining r62As on the 6 train.

Soon there were barely any r62s on the NYC subway system and are going downhill (not in money or peaple not liking it or liking it) all they were runningg on was only ten cars running on the 1 train and still some but also not a lot MTA even said that there starting to put r142s and r142As on the 3 train and there's only one train of r142 running on the 3 train they even said the r62s would retire after the r262 came out so by 2027 to 2030 or 2031 start saying your goodbyes.

The cars entered revenue testing on the 4 line, and were also tested on the 2, 5, and 7 lines before that. Soon after delivery, the cars also proved themselves much less prone to breakdowns than previous rolling stock. All 325 cars were in service by August 1985, making the 4 line the first entirely graffiti-free line in the subway in many years.

Kawasaki did not wish to build extra cars the MTA wanted under the different contract dubbed "R62A", for the same price per car. Bombardier Transportation won a contract to supply these additional 825 cars under a license from Kawasaki instead. ^[1]

Though no R62s have been some of them are very slowly retiring because of the r211 and mostly the r262 but there are only a few that have gotten retired but they are still running in service. They also sometimes retire because accidents have caused the premature retirement of ten cars. The remaining cars are expected to be replaced starting around 2027 mostly especially when the r262s come.The MTA proposed mid-life technological upgrades for the R62s in 2010, including LED destination signs and automated announcements. These upgrades have not been executed.

In January 2019, the MTA announced that it would be replacing the R62/A fleets with the "R262" contract, a new fleet that will be ordered as part of a future capital program.

jazzy music playing like at the end of a sad movie R62s you have saluted us for almost more than 40 years and now your retiring starting in 2 years well guess I have to say my very early goodbye note thiss was made in august 2 2025 goodbye ^[2]

in memory of the R62s which is slowly retiring

1. ↑ Monahan, Daniel P. (2002-05-15). "The United States Marine Corps' Ground Safety Program: Train Hard, Train Safe, Train Smart". Fort Belvoir, VA. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
2. ↑ "Goodbye Paradise". Goodbye Paradise. 2019. doi:10.5040/9781350903944.