In December 2021, New York City began to say farewell to its legendary fleet of subway cars: the R-32s, also known as the Brightliners.
The same remaining R-32s in the fleet, which were slowly phased out over the past decade, took a series of farewell rides in early January.
The cars are almost 60 years old and still in great shape. They are icons of the city.
Those cars have been running through the transit system since the 1960s. They were first introduced as the state of the art much lighter than the older train cars of it's time. They have a unique exterior that resembles the ridged side of a soup can. The trains were dubbed as Brightliners because of their sleek, shining appearance.
The MTA now continues to modernize the transit system. The trains will now end up in a scrap heap in Ohio. Next week, the trains will float across the Hudson River on a barge, and loaded onto a freight train.
An MTA spokesperson had said that they would be scrapped by a company in Ohio. They will be abated and have their metal recycled, and non-recyclables with be disposed of.
The R-32s ran on the Q but were also found on the A, C, J, and Z in recent years. They were among the oldest subway cars to remain operating in the world. Now New Yorkers will remember them for their front window that allows passengers a head-on view through the tunnels. They were the last subway car class to have that feature.
We wrote about these beauties before…
