75 new railway cars set to come to Staten Island, but when?

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Like many Staten Island residents, Eileen Woll of Tottenville takes the Staten Island Railway from Tottenville to St. George five days a week to ride the ferry to get to work.

Generally, Woll thinks the rail is fine, and a better option than taking the express bus -- except, when the heating isn't working so well in the winter and when the air conditioner is lagging in the summer.

"Because it's an outside rail, I wish they would pay more attention to the heat in the winter and the AC in the summer," Woll said.

Nassef Dewidar of New Dorp recently gave up driving into the city for work and now relies on the rail and the ferry to get to Manhattan.

But the problem with the rail he says, is that it's often running late it can add hours to the overall commute -- a problem he says he experiences about once a month.

"If they could run it like [every] 15 minutes so if you miss one you're not going to miss like one hour commute to the city, because sometimes if it didn't show up for half an hour, you miss like one and a half hours," Nassef said.

MTA spokesman Shams Tarek said, "The Staten Island Railway had a 97 percent on-time performance record in 2017 and delivers a reliable ride for the vast majority of its 30,000 daily customers.

"SIR train frequency is every 15 minutes during rush hour and every 30 minutes during off-peak times," he added.

New Dorp resident Jay Carbone says he frequently runs into the same problem as Nassef.

The New Dorp High School senior says the rail is the most direct route to get him between New Dorp and Tottenville, but is upset with "the inconsistency of the schedule."

Carbone says he's missed the train because it comes minutes ahead of schedule and doesn't wait for riders.

Carbone says he wishes all of the platforms along the rail had automated screens that would tell commuters when the next train is scheduled to arrive.

75 NEW CARS COMING TO STATEN ISLAND -- BUT WHEN?

In January, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board unanimously approved a base contract for $1.4 billion to purchase 535 state-of-the-art next generation R211 subway cars.

As part of the contract and a pilot program for the city, Kawasaki will design and deliver 75 closed-end cars for the SIR, 440 new closed-end cars for the B Division lettered routes cars, and 20 open gangway cars.

The MTA says the Island's new fleet will address many commuters' concerns.

Come 2020, the MTA will receive and test the new fleet. But the question of when the new fleet will actually be up and running for Island residents remains unclear.

"SIR is aggressively modernizing its system by investing hundreds of millions of dollars into replacing the entire fleet of cars, building three new power substations, and the repair and upgrade of track, stations, radio systems and other elements of the system," he added.

Over the years, the SIR has been known to inherit aging, "hand-me-down" trains, as some have put it, from the rest of the city. And the cars have undergone a number of upgrades and refurbishings to hide their aging.

If the MTA found a car structurally unsound, it was replaced with old cars leaving other city lines.

The MTA said the last overhaul to the SIR fleet was just last year. Those improvements included the SIR's fleet getting refurbished and other general repairs.

In addition to the new R211 fleet, the MTA said the city's 2015-2019 capital plan set aside $92 million for building three new power substations, and $93 million for the upgrade of track, stations, radio systems and a number of other structures and facilities around Staten Island.

Much of those upgrades funded in the capital plan have already started, while some have already been complete, the MTA said.

'I DON'T KNOW WHETHER I'LL BE ALIVE IN 2020'

Robert, 71, of Oakwood Heights has been riding the Staten Island Rail since the 1950s.

Overall, he said he is skeptical about when the new fleet will actually come -- especially if the deal is being brokered under the administration of Mayor Bill de blasio.

If the city's promise to bring a new fleet of cars to Staten Island was made in the same vein as the mayor's promise to reform property taxes, Robert says he is worried the new cars won't be up and running until he's six feet under.

"It's to be seen, but [a new fleet] would be a welcomed thing," Robert said. "They should upgrade everything else, but we're the forgotten borough."

For the last 30 years he's been commuting on the SIR, Joe Bufalini of Oakwood Heights, said he has never seen a brand new car on the tracks.

With no clear date from the MTA on when the new fleet will be operational, Bufalini says: "That's typical Staten Island -- sounds good, but it's been a long time."

"[The new fleet is] overdue, and I'd love to see it when it happens, but I'm going to hold judgement until I actually see it," Bufalini said. "And even saying 2020, 2021 whatever -- it's a long time away."

In the meantime, he wants to see better coordination between the ferries and the trains. If the ferry happens to be running late from the Whitehall Terminal, Bufalini says he wishes ferry operators would communicate with train conductors to notify them of the delay so that the train can wait for commuters like himself who need to catch the train to get home.

"I would imagine that in this day and age with technology, it's a simple issue of communicating between the train dispatcher in St. George and the ferry and they can make a brief announcement," Bufalini said.

"Personnel make every effort to align service with the ferry's actual arrivals and departures," MTA spokesman Tarek said, adding that, "We do hold departing trains from St. George when ferries are running late."

For younger residents like Zachary Sadiki, a senior at Curtis High School who commutes between Grant City and St. George for school, he says he would like to have the chance to ride the new cars but wonders if he'll still be living on Staten Island after he graduates once they ready for riders.

"For people our age, it's not worth it," he said.