We Get to Keep Our C Train Cars for Seven More Years

When we last checked in with the R32s — the oldest subway cars in the MTA system — the agency said they'd be replaced in 2017. But now it looks like you'll be riding them until 2022.

The MTA says welding issues with the replacement cars have caused the delivery date of the new fleet to slip from 2017 until 2018. But even when the new trains come in, the agency is planning on keeping the R32s in service until at least 2022.

That's a change from earlier this year, when the MTA told WNYC it was going to retire the R32s — the oldest subway car model in the system, and a model that breaks down more often — when the replacement R179 models came in. (To be fair, the cars received a complete rebuild in the 1980s.)

But the R32s need to keep running because of "needs across the system," according to MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg. It will cost the agency $50.2 million to keep the 51-year-old cars going, according to agency documents (see page 387.) 

Lisberg said that by 2018, there should be 300 new R179s rolling on the C-J-Z lines.

It was not immediately clear whether the R32s would continue running on the C line or be deployed elsewhere.

The story was first reported in the Daily News.