On Monday Governor Cuomo unveiled designs for the renovation of 31 subway stations stations and hundreds of new subway cars. 1,025 cars will sport new features, inside and out, while 750 new cars will be “Open Car End” designs, so passengers flow will be enhanced but there will be no more fleeing the dreaded stink car.

“The MTA is the circulatory system for the metropolitan area. If you want to grow the metropolitan area, if you want to sustain the metropolitan area, the answer cannot be that people get in their cars and commute to work. That just does not work,” Cuomo said at a press conference. “The volume just cannot be handled by the current road transportation system. The MTA is going to have to increase their capacity to manage that higher volume.”

For those anxious that the MTA may draw on the vast reservoir of design talent in the city, worry not. The new stations and cars look sleek, but not radically so. The open-tube designs are intended to reduce crowding by more evenly distributing the number of passengers on the train while wider doors will speed up entry and exit time by one third. In addition to wi-fi and USB charging ports at stations and in cars, security is paramount: The governor highlighted the presence of surveillance cameras on platforms and inside trains.

The investments are part of the agency’s $27 billion, five-year capital plan. The MTA is using design-build contracts to speed up the project timeline: “We have had enough experience to know the best way to do this now is contract the entire project to a private sector developer who does this, who can design the project to your specifications, can build the project, is incentivized to get it done quickly, and is penalized if they are late. These endless construction projects, that just go on and on and on, and they seemingly have no end, have to stop. We need a different way to do business which is design-build,” Cuomo declared. Stations will be completely closed during renovations to further expedite the process.

The first of several Requests for Proposals for the renovations will be released this week.