New York City Subway rolling stock

Part of a series of articles on

Overview History Stations Rolling stock Expansion Nomenclature Services

v t e

The New York City Subway is a large rapid transit system and has a large fleet of electric multiple unit rolling stock. As of November 2016^[update], the New York City Subway has 6418 cars on the roster.

The system maintains two separate fleets of passenger cars: one for the A Division (numbered) routes, the other for the B Division (lettered) routes. All A Division equipment is approximately 8 feet 9 inches (2.67 m) wide and 51 feet (15.54 m) long. B Division cars, on the other hand, are about 10 feet (3.05 m) wide and either 60 feet 6 inches (18.44 m) or 75 feet 6 inches (23.01 m) long. The A Division and B Division trains operate only in their own division; operating in the other division is not allowed. All rolling stock, in both the A and B Divisions, run on the same 4 foot 8.5 inches (1,435 mm) standard gauge and use the same third-rail geometry and voltage. A typical revenue train consists of 8 to 10 cars, although in practice they can range between 2 and 11 cars.

The subway's rolling stock have operated under various companies: the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit (BMT), and Independent Subway System (IND), all of which have since merged into the New York City Transit Authority. Cars purchased by the City of New York since the inception of the IND and for the other divisions beginning in 1948 are identified by the letter "R" followed by a number. Various kinds of cars are also used for maintenance work, including flatcars and vacuum trains.