‘Light, airy, open’: Riders hail debut of MTA’s open gangway subway trains

There’s a new train in town.

New Yorkers on Thursday took their first rides on the MTA’s new “open gangway” subway cars, which lack interior doors, allowing riders to walk the entire length of the train.

The MTA has just two of the new train sets and is testing them out on the C line. Open gangway trains have been used for decades in other subway systems, such as those of London, Paris and Tokyo.

“It’s light, it’s airy, it’s open. It’s kind of surreal to just be able to walk through like I’ve done in other cities, visiting other places,” said Jeremy Zorek, 21, who was among the first members of the public to ride the new cars. He filmed parts of his southbound ride from 168th Street in Washington Heights.

As the subway doors opened at each stop, boarding riders looked around in excitement and bewilderment, snapped photos of the doorless “accordion” space between the cars, or tried walking through the train themselves.

“You feel more comfortable and maybe safer,” said Shildrey Figueroa, who was on the way to a doctor’s appointment, in Spanish. “The problem was that you couldn’t see what was happening over there when you’re sitting here.”

The new trains are a long time coming. The MTA ordered them in 2018 as part of a larger purchase of 535 modern train cars. But after years of delays by Kawasaki, which builds the cars in Lincoln, Nebraska, they’re finally on the tracks.

The MTA ordered enough open gangway cars for just two trains because officials said they wanted to see how they worked in New York’s subways. They’ve already hit some speed bumps.

An internal MTA memo obtained by Gothamist last month shows transit officials banned the new trains from carrying passengers on the express A line tracks and have limited them to the local C line.

According to the memo, the open gangway cars “make it impossible” for train operators to safely inspect both sides of the track if the emergency brakes are tripped on the express A…