LIRR M9: The Newest Electric Rail Car in America's Busiest Commuter Train Fleet

But at least in terms of the MTA's latest M9 Railcar, the results are nothing short of impressive. Since electric trains are just as valid as electric cars, let's take a closer look into New York's newest passenger railroad car, taking the Metro-North and the LIRR into the 2020s.

For a bit of backstory, the Long Island Rail Road is one of New York's few remaining functional engineering masterpieces. The 11 lines strong rail system spans the entire length of Long Island, from stations in Brooklyn and Mid-Town Manhattan all the way to the tip of Montauk, 115 miles (185.07 km) away.

On the average weekday, 350,000 people use the LIRR to commute to and from their jobs either inside or just outside of New York City. Mind you, that's not even counting the ridership of the LIRR's sister branch, the Metro-North Rail Road (MTR), who services commuters directly north and northwest of the city in the neighboring Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties, as well as Southern Connecticut. Safe to say, commuters on that vast of a scale need a railcar a cut above the rest to satisfy.

For decades now, the brunt of this service was allocated to the Bombardier M7 and the Budd Metropolitan M1/M3 line of railcars, at least as far as the LIRR is concerned. At least on main-line routes where the LIRR's diesel-electric locomotives seldom travel, the M1, M1A, and upgraded M3 serviced these stations since 1971 and 1985, respectively. Safe to say, 40 years of ferrying iconically energetic and emotionally charged New York City folks had taken their toll.

The successor to the famous M3 rail car, the Kawasaki Heavy Industries M9, came at a bit of a watershed time in New York State's history. For decades, all of the railroads under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the LIRR, MTR, and the Subway included, were lauded as some of the least efficient, worst managed, and constantly behind schedule rail networks in the United States. The new rail car was supposed to symbolize that things were finally about to change.

New features like wide seats, closed-loop armrests, electrical outlets at both ends of the car for each group of seats, and integrated 32-inch LCD multi-media screens make the M9 as contemporary as it advertises. Anyone who's had to make a mad dash for the LIRR railcar seat with the only power outlet for the entire car no doubt appreciates this feature.

It's important to point out that power outlets in previous LIRR M3s were there for maintenance crews to vacuum off the seats at the end of the night, not to charge your phone. It certainly shows how different our priorities are as a society nowadays. Meanwhile, the iconically ugly blue and teal color scheme from old LIRR cars are present once again with the new M9. Think of that what you will.

Riders who've grown numb to the text-to-speech automated announcements on their commute for the last 25 years will no doubt find the new feminine sounding and much clearer sounding new announcement system much preferable. The cars are powered by a three-phase AC induction motor courtesy of Mitsubishi Electric. They're powered by a 750 volt DC third rail famous for their ability to fry a human being with sufficient enough direct exposure.

It's a non-battery EV rail system capable of speeds maxing out around 100 miles per hour (160 kph). Though it will seldom see these speeds in passenger service, expect an occupies cruising speed of around 80 mph (130 kph).

In addition to the standard M9, a bespoke line of federally funded rail cars will be manufactured for the direct purpose of service to the upcoming LIRR East Side Access project slated to bring the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal alongside the Metro-North. The first such train of its type was ridden into GCT for the first time with New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on board.

Such cars will be designated the M9A and assembled alongside the M9s at Kawasaki's production facility in Yonkers, just north of the Bronx in New York City. First entering service in September 2019, the M9s were an immediate quality improvement over antiquated railcars that haven't been accepted as contemporary since the late 1980s. Granted, there have been complaints that the cars aren't being introduced nearly quickly enough.

As many as 600 cars are expected to see service with the LIRR and limited use with the MTR by the late 2020s. Hopefully, the infrastructure which services these railcars will have seen an equal level of improvement by the time they all get here.

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