纽约地铁车厢将用于维护大西洋生态环境

NY Subway Cars to Help Atlantic Ecosystem 1

Barbara Schoetzau

New York

20 Aug 2001 03:06 UTC

Some 400 New York City 1)subway cars are heading to a final resting place on the bottom of the ocean off the 2)shores of the small state of Delaware. The retired 2 cars will still be working - this time for an environmental cause.

The dark red cars, called Redbirds by subway train workers and fans, were a part of New York's image for more than 40 years.

Introduced between 1959 and 1964, the Redbirds carried tens of millions of locals and tourists around the five counties that make up New York City, from Coney Island, at the tip of Brooklyn, to the Queens County site of the 1964 World's Fair.

Last year the Redbirds did double-duty, carrying 3)baseball fans back and forth 3 between Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Shea Stadium, the Queens home of the New York Mets, when New York's two baseball teams vied for the baseball 4)championship in the famous "subway series."

Now the 30-ton cars are being shipped by barge 4 to Delaware where they will be taken out to sea and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. New York City transit 5 official Albert O'Leary says they will be used to create an 5)artificial 6)reef, helping 6 to rebuild a 7)marine 8)ecological system on the 9)barren floor of the ocean. "People who like to dive, people who like to fish - this is going to be the Disney World of the Eastern 10)seaboard in a couple of months," said Mr. O'Leary.

Times change and technology moves forward. The subway fare was fifteen cents when the Redbirds first took to the New York City tracks. It is now ten times that. A new fleet of brightly-lit, air-conditioned cars with 11)automated public address systems are replacing the old cars. Still, the Redbirds will be missed by long-time transit workers such as Joseph Hoffman, who says "they have been a part of my life. I feel bad about it. I started two tracks over and two cars down in 1970, doing 12)overhauls. I put in most of these components 7 that we have taken out."

Transit workers are cleaning the old cars and removing any items that could harm divers 8 or damage the environment.

"We went out of our way," says Mr. Hoffman, "taking 13)painstaking measures to make sure there is absolutely no grease on these cars, nothing that could float to the top, nothing that could damage the environment. These cars are inspected both by the Coast Guard and by the state of Delaware before we put them on the 14)barge."

The first shipment of 20 cars will be sunk on Tuesday. City transit officials say it is far cheaper to ship the subway cars to Delaware than to dispose of them in a 15)landfill.

(1)      subway[5sQbweI]n.地道, 地铁

(2)      shore[FC:(r)]n.岸, 海滨, 支撑柱vt.支撑, 支持

(3)      baseball[5beIsbC:l]n.棒球, 棒球运动

(4)      championship[5tFAmpIEnFIp]n.锦标赛

(5)      artificial[B:tI5fIF(E)l]adj.人造的, 假的, 非原产地的

(6)      reef[ri:f]n.暗礁, 收帆v.收(帆)

(7)      marine[mE5ri:n]n.舰队, 水兵, 海运业adj.海的, 海产的, 航海的

(8)      ecological[9i:kE`lCdVIkEl]adj.生态学的, 社会生态学的

(9)      barren[5bArEn]adj.不生育的, 不孕的, 贫瘠的

(10)      seaboard[5si:bC:d]n.海岸, 沿海地方

(11)      automate[5C:tEmeIt]v.使自动化, 自动操作

(12)      overhaul[5EJvEhC:l]v.检查

(13)      painstaking[5peInzteIkIN]n.苦干, 辛苦adj.辛苦的, 辛勤的, 艰苦的

(14)      barge[bB:dV]n.驳船, 游艇vt.用船运输vi.蹒跚, 闯入

(15)      landfill[ `lAndfIl ]n.垃圾掩埋法, 垃圾