How New York Subway Cars Die

Blogger samsebeskazal writes: Almost all decommissioned wagons are waiting for the last big trip. First, carts, glass, doors, part of the skin and equipment are dismantled from them, all hazardous materials and technical fluids are removed. Something will go to landfill, something will be recycled, and something will be sold to everyone. There is a special section on the MTA website where old equipment removed from cars and buses is put up for sale: plates, benches, numbers, logos, etc. Then the gutted wagons are properly disinfected by steam treatment and loaded onto a barge that will take them to the open ocean. Among people who are fond of the New York subway, it is called the "barge of death." At their destination, the wagons will be thrown overboard, sinking to the bottom of the ocean and soon becoming home to thousands of fish and marine life.

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1. The news itself is no longer news (the last cars were stoked at the end of 2010), but the other day I came across a selection of photos in good quality and decided to share it.

2. Not all wagons go to the bottom. Some are left for later use for official purposes, and some are given to the transport museum or stored in the depot.

3. The artificial reef program began when the MTA faced the problem of disposing of a large fleet of wagons manufactured in the 60s. Asbestos-containing materials were used in their production, which made disposal in the usual way economically unprofitable. Then they decided to drown. It is believed that asbestos is only harmful when it comes into contact with air, and in water it allegedly loses its dangerous properties. Not everyone agrees with this, but the government gave the go-ahead and the wagons began to be dumped into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

4. Since the beginning of the 2000s, 2,580 wagons have already been disposed of in this way.

5. The MTA Company claims that they have saved more than $12 million by dumping wagons into the ocean.

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10. Cars were sunk all along the coast from New Jersey to Georgia.

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13. 26 miles off the coast of Delaware there is an artificial reef called Redbird. Redbird is the name of a series of New York subway cars whose sides were once painted crimson to combat graffiti. To create this reef, 714 wagons, 86 tanks and armored vehicles, 8 tugboats and barges, and about 3,000 tons of truck wheels were sunk in a small area. For 7 years, the fish population increased there by 4 times.

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20. The story would not be complete without these photos.

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