sustainability

Last Stop: Coral Station

The Problem:

How do you dispose of old and busted infrastructure, such as obsolete subway cars, in a more sustainable way?


The Insight:

Subway cars (made from carbon steel) are the perfect artificial reef. Artificial reefs provide 400 times more food for fish than nearby sandy bottom areas. And all the windows and doors on a subway car that allow people to enter and exit quickly and to see out of the car, are fantastic openings for fish too.


The Idea:

Sea Trains. Decommissioned Redbird subway train cars from New York City have been sunk into the ocean along the U.S. Atlantic coast to make artificial reefs. Delaware has 14 artificial reefs (in Delaware Bay and along the Atlantic coast in the south of the state) that utilize over 1000 repurposed Redbird trains. 

Source: CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation