The MTA board is poised to buy 80 new “open-gangway” R211T subway cars, part of a larger, 435-car purchase option from train-builder Kawasaki that was delayed by the pause on congestion pricing. “Today is a big day for our subway system,” NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said Monday. Open-gangway cars, which have long articulated sections instead of doors between each car, are standard on several transit systems worldwide. The design allows for passenger flow between cars, and proponents say they could reduce incidents of subway surfing by eliminating easy access to the train’s exterior. The MTA has been testing two trains of open-gangway cars on the C line for the past year. Though the newly-ordered trains are not expected to arrive until 2027, Crichlow said Monday that one of the two 10-car trains on the C line will be split into two five-car trains and run on the G line early next year. The G train has historically run shorter trainsets — four-car sets in recent years — and MTA chairman Janno Lieber said the open-gangway five-car trains could help alleviate crowding on the line. An R211T subway train. (Marc A. Hermann / MTA) “This is going to specifically deal with some of the crowding conditions they talk about on those long platforms,” Lieber said. The $1.3 billion order also includes 355 standard R211 cars — the R211A that has been running on the A and C lines. MTA officials say the new order of cars will replace the remaining R46 cars in the system, and at least half of the R68 cars currently in service. These cars — known by straphangers for their orange-and-yellow “conversational” seating — are the oldest on the lettered lines, with R46s operating on the A, C, N, Q and W trains and the Rockaway Shuttle, and the R68s operating on the B, D, N, Q, and W trains as well as the Franklin Ave. Shuttle. The rollout of the open-gangway cars has been slow, with the bulk of the cars purchased from Kawasaki being of the more traditional, closed-end design. In the initial contract with the car-builder, the MTA had reserved the option to purchase hundreds of open-gangway cars. Instead, after this order is completed, the transit agency will have just 100 open-gangway cars across the entire fleet. NYC Transit brass has spent the past several months debating whether the open-gangway cars can operate along long stretches of track while remaining compliant with various work and safety rules, sources told the Daily News. A new C train, a Kawasaki-made R211T, entered passenger service for the first time at 168th St. in February. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Daily News) A January memo, obtained by The News, directed crews not to operate the trains on the express tracks of the A train. At the time, sources told The News that the memo was the result of concerns raised regarding whether a car could be adequately evacuated in the case of a smoke condition. Asked Monday if that directive still stood, Crichlow said no. “The new [open gangway] R211s will come with a couple of different nuances that the current cars do not have,” he said. “The new cars will have the ability to operate throughout the entire system, both with technical [additions] to the car itself, and procedural [additions] with our operating teams.” Though the bulk of the R211 order is meant to replace the aging R46s and R68s, Crichlow said the open-gangway cars would be used to test the design across the lettered lines. “These additional 80 cars are intended to be used throughout the system to get a better sense of how they perform on different lines,” he said. There are currently 320 R211s operating on the A and C lines and bound for the Staten Island Railway, with Kawasaki continuing to deliver the 210 remaining from the MTA’s initial order. The transit agency has also ordered an additional 640 cars through a prior contract option.