NEW YORK CITY — New Yorkers got treated to two big reveals Thursday: new subway trains and garbage trucks.
No, this wasn’t a 6-year-old boy’s birthday party.
Next-generation “open gangway” subway trains rolled out for the first time along the C line Thursday morning in an event held by Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA officials.
Find out what's happening in New York Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“You can actually move seamlessly from one car to another,” Hochul said.
The R211 cars will be the first open gangway cars — meaning they offer open views and movement from one end of a train to the other — in modern U.S. subway history, MTA officials said.
Find out what's happening in New York Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
But unobstructed movement between cars (and, perhaps, away from irksome fellow straphangers) isn’t the only perk offered by the R211 subway cars, officials said.
The cars come with wider doors, better wheelchair accessibility and pre-installed cameras, they said.
“Every car has at least two cameras that people know that when something’s going on, it makes them uncomfortable, there’s somebody aware of it,” Hochul said. “That’s a great deterrent, but it also gives people that sense of comfort. The police can actually see what’s going on and respond quicker.”
Roughly 1,000 subway cars across the entire MTA system now have cameras, officials said.
The new open design also eliminates gaps between cars, which Hochul said will prevent subway surfing and falls.
The cars’ inaugural ride unfolded about an hour before Mayor Eric Adams made an announcement of his own: newfangled garbage trucks.
Adams unveiled a new, automated, side-loading garbage truck designed to take containerized trash.
The trucks will service residential buildings with 31 or more units, which soon will be required to use stationary, on-street containers for their trash, officials said.
Such buildings in Manhattan Community Board 9 — which covers Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights — will be the first in the city to fall under the new requirement in spring 2025, officials said.
Adams said the trucks dovetail with other recent efforts to eliminate the mountains of black plastic bags from the city’s streets.
“This is the most significant progress toward clean streets that New Yorkers have seen in generations,” he said.
Hizzoner wasn’t alone in perhaps-hyperbolically describing the trucks’ significance.
“This was our moon landing,” NYC Sanitation tweeted, along with a video showing the truck pick up trash.
The trash hubbub was less impressive for non-New Yorkers, who unleashed a veritable heap of snarky tweets.
“I’m sorry is this some kind of elaborate prank on the rest of the world or does NYC legitimately not have garbage trucks that pick up trash cans, a technology that every town of 800 people in the country has had for 30 years now?” stated one representative tweet.
I’m sorry is this some kind of elaborate prank on the rest of the world or does NYC legitimately not have garbage trucks that pick up trash cans, a technology that every town of 800 people in the country has had for 30 years now? https://t.co/SWQMtDmfD2
— strings and sealing wax (@22_over7) February 1, 2024
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
Click Here: london gaa jerseys