How New York Subway Cars Die

Almost all decommissioned wagons are waiting for the last big trip. First, carts, glass, doors, part of the casing and equipment are dismantled from them, all hazardous materials and technical fluids are removed. Something will go to a 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 wagons and buses is put up for sale: plates, benches, numbers, logos, etc. Then the gutted cars are properly disinfected by steaming and loaded onto a barge that will take them to the open ocean. Among the people who are fond of the New York subway, it is called the "death barge." At the destination, the wagons will be dropped overboard, sink to the bottom of the ocean and will soon become home to thousands of fish and marine organisms.

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

Not all cars go to the bottom. Part of it is left for subsequent use for official purposes, and part is given to the transport museum or stored in a depot.

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

Since the early 2000s, 2,580 wagons have already been utilized in this way.

MTA claims that by dumping cars in the ocean, they saved more than $ 12 million.

Wagons stoked along the coast from New Jersey to Georgia.

26 miles off the coast of Delaware there is an artificial reef called the Redbird. Redbird is the name of a series of New York City subway cars whose sides were once painted dark red to combat graffiti. To create this reef in a small area, 714 wagons, 86 tanks and armored vehicles, 8 tugboats and barges, as well as about 3,000 tons of wheels from trucks were flooded. Over 7 years, the fish population there increased 4 times.