An ostensibly win-win program to reincarnate old subway cars as artificial subterranean reefs off the eastern seaboard has proven largely unsuccessful because the damn things are just falling apart. The city has been paying millions to ship the cars to other states, who received them for free, and last April the program was said to be so successful off the coast of Delaware that marine officials were struggling to cope with the influx of fisherman drawn to the suddenly populous underwater metropolis. more ›

Someone at SubChat is spreading lies...according to the MTA. The website has a posting titled: TAs Newest $16 Million Blunder, which goes on to describe how a subway car was "reefed sometime last month, by mistake, with a sophisticated biological/radiological sensing system still hidden within the car structure." There's more about how the "prototype sensor was installed in 2005 as part of a federally funded anti-terrorism project and is housed in a waterproof–shockproof case, similar to an aircraft 'black box'" and that "retrieving the sensor is expected to be up to $16 million depending on how long it takes to locate the car" somewhere in the Atlantic, off Delaware. Wow, this sounds like the plot of what could be a great MTA-centric major motion picture blockbuster! But the buzzkills over at the MTA tell us that: "There is absolutely no truth to this internet rumor." more ›

A reader sent us some photos of retired subway cars traveling by barge to their watery graves. Once hitting the correct latitude they're dumped overboard to create natural reefs. Earlier this year the reef program proved to be too popular in Delaware, where subway cars were sent on the MTA's dime. Reportedly they're adding tanks, refrigerators, shopping carts and washing machines to the ocean floor in order to expand the reef. more ›

Art by John Blackford and James Fisher, photo courtesy John Barnes. more ›