Connecticut’s old M-2 train cars contain asbestos lining that make scrapping impossibleNew York, New York - According to Metro-North Railroad officials, in just a few weeks, Connecticut’s Kawasaki M-8 rail cars are expected in service. Now comes the task of gradually discarding the state's fleet of 235 M-2 cars, plus a pending contract will also include disposal of more than 250 worn out New York City subway cars.
"We're in the process of reviewing proposals from companies interested in scrapping the old cars," says Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. "We expect to award the contract in January and begin scrapping M-2 cars early next year."
Disposal of the M-2 cars may take a while because their steel bodies are lined with a sound-dampening material that contains asbestos, a carcinogenic mineral that is known to cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the protective lining of the lungs, heart, chest and abdomen. Therefore, the carriage portion will have to be buried in a special landfill.
If asbestos-containing materials are not properly disposed of there is a very high risk of exposing the surrounding community to asbestos, which is a silent killer. Only decades later, once asbestos cancers become symptomatic do people realize what has happened. Mesothelioma, which is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, takes an average of 40 years to develop. By the time is usually diagnosed, it has progressed to stage three or four and requires aggressive mesothelioma treatment.
The cost of removing the asbestos-containing material is so high that re-adapting the M-2 cars is impossible and scrapping them for steel unprofitable. The presence of asbestos also rules out enacting any plans similar to that of the hundreds of retired New York City subway cars that were dumped off the coast of Delaware to create artificial reefs for marine life in 2008/09.
