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On Jan. 29, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) board approved a plan to purchase 120 passenger cars from Bombardier Transportation for MTA Metro-North Railroad.

To be financed mainly through a $208 million bond sale, the purchase advances a contract New York MTA had planned to execute in 2005. The authority accelerated the purchase because Metro-North has experienced cold weather-related service problems with existing cars.

"The MTA's mandate is to provide safe and reliable mass transportation to all our customers in the metropolitan region," said New York MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow in a prepared statement. "A similar acceleration was taken in 1999 on behalf of the city of New York to purchase 112 additional subway cars at a cost of $161 million."

New York MTA plans to deduct the accelerated purchase from Metro-North's 2005 capital spending plan.