R143 (New York City Subway car)

The R143 is a standard gauge New York City Subway B Division new technology (NTT) car built by Kawasaki in 2001-2003. The New York City Transit Authority owns 212 R143 cars, numbered #8101-8312, and built for an average cost of about $1.5 million per car.

Car order
Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. was awarded a $190 million contract for 100 new B Division cars in late December 1998, with an option for 112 more cars. The new design was based on the A Division's R142A, which Kawasaki also built, and incorporated many features from the R110A and R110B prototypes. Delivery began in late 2001, and a 30-day test with one train of eight cars (#8101-8108) began on December 4, 2001. According to Kawasaki, the test was "extremely successful".

Revenue service
R143s began running on the BMT Canarsie Line on February 12, 2002, where they have been assigned to since, and all 212 cars were delivered to the subway by March 2003. In addition to running on the L, where the R143s displaced the R40/R40As and most of the R42s, they also displaced the R42s on the weekend shuttle service on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line when that line became the first Eastern Division line to be placed in weekend OPTO service. The R143s there were then displaced by R160As in February 2008. OPTO was also tested on the L during mid-2005.

The 212 cars delivered were expected to provide enough service for years, but the fast growth of the Williamsburg neighborhood overloaded the L by mid-2006.

The R143 cars are based at East New York Yard near Broadway Junction. The R143s are almost identical to the R160s, however the two car types can not be interchanged with each other.

R143 experimentation
Eight R143s numbered #8205-8212 were originally delivered with experimental Siemens traction motors to test the traction motors that would be later found in R160B cars #8843-9102. These cars were eventually refitted with the Bombardier traction motors found on all other R143s.

Canarsie Yard accident
On June 21, 2006, an eight-car R143 train overshot the bumper at the end of the tracks in the Canarsie Yard after the operator suffered a seizure. Lead car #8277 suffered significant damage and has been stripped of damaged parts for repair. It was sent to the Kawasaki plant in Yonkers while the rest of the set (#8278-8280) is at the 207th Street Yard. However, #8277 was repaired for 5 years at the 207th Street and Coney Island Repair Shops and the repair work continues to be done. #8278 also suffered a bit of body damage but was repaired sometime between 2009-2011 and coupled back up with 8279-8280. #8277 has been put back into a four-car set with #8278-8280, but are in need of some component replacement to become operational.