Bombardier Transportation announced today that it has signed a contract for 300 subway cars with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to be delivered to New York City Transit (NYCT).

The order is valued at approximately $599 million US ($623 million CDN, 482 million euro). The MTA Board of Directors approved the award of a contract to Bombardier on March 28, 2012.

The new cars (known as the R179 series) will be built at Bombardier’s fully-integrated manufacturing plant in Plattsburgh, New York. The Plattsburgh facility is located in New York State’s North Country region and is Bombardier’s Centre of Excellence for rolling stock production in the United States. In operation since 1995, it has produced more than 3,000 passenger rail cars and locomotives now in service across the United States.

The R179 cars will incorporate state-of-the-art technology from Bombardier. The cars will be powered by highly reliable BOMBARDIER MITRAC propulsion equipment with new, energy-efficient inverters. The cars’ onboard systems will be integrated by Bombardier’s industry-leading MITRAC train control and management system with internet protocol technology. The propulsion and control equipment will be supplied by Bombardier’s Propulsion and Controls business unit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Delivery of 10 pilot cars is scheduled to take place in the third quarter of 2014, followed by delivery of the remaining production series cars between mid-2015 and early 2017.

Raymond Bachant, President, Bombardier Transportation North America, said: “Bombardier’s partnership with NYCT began in 1982 with an order for 825 subway cars. Since then, we have delivered close to 1,900 vehicles to our valued customer. We are proud that NYCT has shown its confidence in our products and technologies once again, and we look forward to providing high quality, reliable, safe rail cars for the millions of people who ride New York’s subway system every day.”

Bombardier has redefined the future of mass transit travel. Around the world, more than seven billion people use Bombardier subway cars every year, from Boston, New York, Montreal, Toronto and Mexico City to London, Paris, Berlin, Delhi and Shanghai. Bombardier’s current North American orders include 706 new subway cars for Chicago, 468 cars for Montreal, and 420 cars for Toronto.

NYCT – one of six operating agencies that make up the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York – is the largest public transportation agency in North America and one of the largest in the world. The subway has a daily ridership of more than five million people, and an annual ridership close to 1.6 billion people. Its fleet of 6,380 subway cars travels almost 345 million miles a year along 660 miles of track, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.