Last week’s train derailment on the Upper West Side, and the most recent derailment along the F train line in Brooklyn, bring the scrutiny of the National Transportation Safety Board, which was already investigating the death of a track worker near Herald Square in late November.

And now, questions as to whether the MTA needs to speed up the procurement of so-called "new technology trains" to improve safety.

What You Need To Know

  • Last week’s train derailment on the Upper West Side, and the most recent derailment along the F train line in Brooklyn, bring the scrutiny of the National Transportation Safety Board

  • The NTSB chastised New York City Transit for not having operator and outward-facing cameras and data recorders

  • Transit officials say data recorders are in 60% of trains, and newer trains have even more features

  • The technology doesn't prevent accidents, but does aid investigations and helps transit agencies make changes to prevent them in the future

The cause of last week's derailment of two 1 trains at West 96th Street on the Upper West Side is being eyed as possible human error. An out-of-service train that had several brakes pulled was ordered to wait before setting out to the West 240th Street rail yard.

Instead, it headed north, colliding at a slow rate of speed with another 1 train carrying hundreds of passengers. Both trains were model R62As from the mid-1980s.

NTSB Chairperson Jennifer Homendy chastised the MTA for its lack of certain features.

“New York City Transit trains don’t have three things that are key to safety and key to investigations,” Homendy said. “Inward-facing cameras, outward-facing cameras and event-data recorders.”

But in an interview earlier this week, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said 60% of subway trains have data recorders. And New York City Transit President Rich Davey on "Mornings On 1" disputed the other claims.

“As we’re buying new technology, new cars, inward facing cameras, outward facing cameras, event recorders are standard issue,” Davey said.

However, the new technology trains have been slow to roll out. The most recent: the R211s on the A line. On the Broadway line, including the 1 train, the R62As were supposed to be replaced with new trains as part of the current capital plan.

That was amended in 2022 to move funds to the Penn Station Access Project for Metro-North. The next capital plan has yet to come out.

While these features don’t prevent incidents, they help investigators figure out what happened and allow the agency to implement changes. The train involved in the latest derailment is newer and does have a data recorder.