Sunday, we took a Transit Museum tour of the East 180th Street Maintenance Facility led by Joseph Tassiello, the Superintendent of the facility. He explained the role of the shops and how the modern Bombardier R142 subway car has made his job easier in getting the thirty-three 10-car-trains in service on the 5 train every day.

In the days of the Redbirds, fixing something simple like a damaged floor involved taking the train out of service, stripping out all the seats and poles to replace the floor. Today with the R142, the floor is in modular sections, so the damaged portion can be replaced quickly and easily with just the damaged section of floor having to be removed.

When things like the HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) unit had to be repaired, specialist employees need to be used on the old cars. Now, regular employees can just disconnect the modular HVAC unit, remove and replace it, connect the new one then send the bad one off for service – all in about an hour.