American rail manufacturer Wabtec has announced that its brakes and couplers have been chosen by Kawasaki for use on new New York City Subway rolling stock.

Wabtec has stated that equipment agreement ensures smooth interoperability with other New York City Transit System (NYCTS) subway fleets.

Wabtec said the equipment produced for the contract will be largely manufactured in the United States, at its South Carolina factory. Kawasaki will meanwhile manufacture its R211 subway cars at its facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska and Yonkers, New York.

This contract provides for equipment to fit up to 640 railcars and delivery is expected across 2025 and 2026.

Pascal Schweitzer, Wabtec transit president “We are delighted that Kawasaki has once again chosen to draw on our strong and longstanding relationship for this exciting project”.

“We are proud to help boost reliability and improve subway service on the New York City Transit System, one of the largest and busiest in the world.”

This partnership comes following one of Wabtec's largest North American transit projects in 2018, in which the company supplied equipment for 535 vehicles.

As previously reported, following the 2018 contract, Kawasaki delivered the first unit of R211 subway cars for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) New York City Transit (NYCT) in 2021.

The New York City metro features the most stops in the world, with over 400 stations and includes over 6,500 vehicles.