M8 (railcar) - Delivery Schedule

Delivery Schedule

The Connecticut Department of Transportation order consists of 300 cars, with an 80 car option order. This option was approved on August 11, 2010. Full production of the M8's was scheduled to begin in early 2010 but has since been delayed. Kawasaki has cited problems with steel suppliers and sub-contractors (which is responsible for 60% of the cars). Once production is at full output the cars will be delivered at a rate of ten per month.

In December 2010 the first 24 cars were received and began to undergo testing.

The cars were originally supposed to go into revenue service in December 2010, however, because of technical problems, revenue service was deferred until March 1, 2011. The first run of the initial 8 car set (consisting of cars 9114, 9115, 9116, 9117, 9112, 9113, 9108, and 9109) originated in Stamford at 10:30am, arriving in Grand Central Terminal at 11:28am. A total of ten 8-car train sets were slated to enter service by the end of the year.

On May 7, 2011, Kawasaki announced that deliveries of 20 cars of the 80 scheduled to enter service by the end of the year would be delayed due to supply problems; Kawasaki said it would build the cars at a later date and absorb the costs incurred. At the time of the announcement, 16 cars had entered service, with an additional ten delivered but not yet in service.

Two months later, an investigative report by WABC-TV News examined correspondence between Kawasaki and Metro-North over the delays in introducing the cars. At the time it had been claimed the cars merely had software problems, but the documents reporters obtained under New York's Freedom of Information Law showed Kawasaki repeatedly asking for deadline extensions over issues such as bad weather and financial difficulties at the company that supplied the onboard toilets. Railroad officials complained in emails reviewed by the channel that some of the requests "defie logic" and were a waste of time. Kawasaki said such multiple delays were "not unusual given the complexity of the cars and suppliers" and were often beyond their control.

On July 20, 2011, the Connecticut Department of Transportation announced the order of 25 unpowered M8 railcars, with options for up to 25 more, at a cost of US$93 million to replace the 48 car M6 fleet.

According to Metro-North, as of Monday, January 07, 2013, 186 cars (9100-9285) have been delivered to state property; 166 cars have been accepted into regular revenue service rotations, comprising 712 weekly trains. 20 cars are currently being tested or inspected by Kawasaki. M8's now provide half of service on weekdays, and up to two-thirds of all service on weekends.

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012, Metro-North announced that they would be installing 15 weekday and 30 weekend M8 trains to their schedule to accommodate increased ridership.