'Dignified' afterlife of MTA subway vehicles

The Infrastructurist today features some reporting on the disposal of retired MTA subway vehicles as artificial reefs for marine habitat, including a slide show in The New York Times and photographs by Stephen Mallon courtesy of Co.Design of the expansion of Red Bird reef off coast of Delaware.

At least fish find the R-44 vehicles quite hospitable (implicitly more so than the older namesake Redbirds), for all their sub-par reliability while in service with the MTA (All 278 subway vehicles have been withdrawn from use as of last September.).

“We call these the DeLoreans of the deep....The one problem I see with them,” Mr. Tinsman said, “is that just like the DeLoreans, there are only a limited number.”

Jeff Tinsman, Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

Contrast this end-of-life outcome with that of the Boeing Vertol LRVs retired from MBTA Green Line.

MTA procurement during decline and renewal: the good, the bad, and the ugly

"While Grumman and Rockwell were incapable of manufacturing sturdy subway and bus equipment, they were able to manufacture satisfactory components for the space program" (New York Daily News, 16 Dec. 1980, p. 33)!

For those interested in the MTA (formerly NYCTA, or simply TA) as a case study in procurement, the context can be found at nycsubway.org. The following sections are particularly relevant, including explicit summaries of procurement procedures and the state of transit vehicle manufacturing from the 1970s through the 1980s:

"The R-46 Rockwell Truck Fiasco," in The New York City Transit Authority in the 1970s
"All Cracked Up" and "New Subway Cars for New York" in The New York City Transit Authority in the 1980s

Details pertaining to the troublesome R-44 and R-46 vehicles are presented in Chapter 10 of They Moved the Millions by Ed Davis, Sr.