Where do old subway cars go when they die?

They don’t go heaven where the angels fly. (Photo courtesy of NYCSubway.org)

Welcome to Old Subway Car Day at Second Ave. Sagas. I’ve got two stories lined up today about our old subway cars and where the rolling stock ends up after its reached the figurative end of the line.

Let’s start down the coast a little bit in New Jersey. Or more accurately, let’s start off the coast of New Jersey, in the world’s largest artificial reef. That’s right; the waters off the coast of the Garden State feature the world’s largest artificial, and it’s made of old subway cars. For more on that fascinating story, check out this National Geographic missive from 2006, featuring some excellent photos.

For a while, New Jersey had stopped accepting old subway cars for its artificial reef over asbestos concerns. But, as The Press of Atlantic City reports, the state’s top environmental official has given the go-ahead to add 600 new old subway cars to the reef. The article — aptly and hilariously headlined “NYC subway cars may sleep with the fishes” — talks about the approval process and more:

They won’t hurt the marine environment, but they will attract black sea bass, tautog, cunner and other fish for anglers to catch. That’s why New Jersey’s top environmental official has given enthusiastic approval to taking 600 subway cars from New York City for the state’s artificial reef program.

“Both New Jersey’s fishing and sport-diving communities would directly benefit from the addition of the stainless steel subway cars on the artificial reef network,” concluded Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Jackson recently completed a scientific review of whether asbestos in the subway cars would pose any risk to marine life. She determined exposure to marine life from the asbestos fibers would be minimal.

The story goes more in depth into the structural state of subway cars buried under water for the last 14 years. These cars are 67 percent in tact and have not substantially shifted. They are, in other words, perfectly suited to serve as artificial reefs, and the stainless steel cars heading New Jersey’s way are expected to last longer than the ones currently under water.

Meanwhile, New Jersey will have to amend itss reef management plan and the federal Army Corps permit to make provisions for subway cars under the artificial reef guidelines. Oh, the joys of bureaucracy.

So these subway cars will live on under the water. For decades they shuttle people, packed like sardines in a can, around New York City. Now, the sardines, or at least their acquatic counsins, will get to enjoy the subway cars as an artificial reef environment. How apt.

For some excellent pictures of the Redbird reef currently resting deep under the Atlantic Ocean, check out this photo set on NYCSubway.org. And come back at 1:30 p.m. for the second Old Subway Car story. It’s all about the economics of old subway cars.