M Train Approaches Marcy Avenue Station

M Train Approaches Marcy Avenue Station

As the towers of the Williamsburg Bridge and a summer storm-threatening sky loom in the distance in this tele-compressed perspective, a Queens-bound M train of recent-design R-160 cars negotiates the S-curve leading from the bridge into the Marcy Avenue station in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Actually, the train is both from Queens and Queens-bound, as it originated at Forest Hills, Queens (where it connects with the Long Island Railroad Main Line), before transiting Manhattan as a Sixth Avenue Local and crossing the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn on its way back to Queens, destination Middle Village - Metropolitan Avenue.

Marcy Avenue is the M train’s first stop in Brooklyn. The station is also served by the J and Z trains.

The R-160’s are so-called New Technology Trains. They are built by both Alstom and Kawasaki and assembled at those companies’ plants in the U.S. They began coming on line in 2006, replacing older equipment. While they operate on the same 600 volt DC third-rail power as the rest of the transit system, they use the more modern AC propulsion traction motors fed by power conversion equipment.

©2017 Steve Ember