r 179? the mta already bought 500 units of r 179's. how do i know this i went on nycsubway.org and looked up the order form from Kawasaki. its nothing really special they are using an old design from the r11 that was never used in the 60's and the design is for the exterior. they are going to begin again with the old cushion seat design that was used on early trains. you know when the cars had soft plush seats inside that's what i was talking about. but the mta is also ain't gonna use the r 179 for the c line. the r 179 are going to be used on the b and d lines. for the c line there going to use the alstom built r 175 trains. i heard its going to have the same design as the r 160 but a tad bit different. all the seats are going to be facing forward like a commuter train. but that design was just a sketch from alstom they say its going to look like the r160 the r46 and the r179 built together. i don't know when these cars will be released but they said the r 179 will go to the aging d and b line fleet while the r 175 go to the broken down c line fleet.
I highly doubt this..AFAIK the R175 is supposed to be a shop equipment contract, the R179 is most likely going to kawasaki, the MTA will never go back to using any type of soft chairs on the trains and arranging the chairs in a commuter train-style is unpractical for use in the subway as there will be no room for standing and loading times will be much longer and much more troublesome.
the R179 will be a 60 foot car similar to the R160 and will replace the remaining R42's at ENY yard and the 32s and 44s on the A/C.
the D will not be getting any new cars soon as long as it will be at concourse, I do not expect concourse yard to give up their R68's anytime soon.
of course nothing in the MTA is set in stone, but that's how the word has been for quite a while now..