Transportation
New York's New Weapon in the Battle Against Subway Trash
The city hopes to declutter its 662 miles of track to prevent train-delaying debris fires.
To the people who throw candy wrappers and coffee cups onto New York’s subway tracks: No, your garbage does not gently decompose, providing nutrients for furry moss, strange fungi, and other subterranean flora.
Rather, city workers regularly go around picking up the trash and dead rats that accumulate on the tracks, using a combination of elbow grease, “vacuum trains,” and now a bunch of experimental, super-sucking hose-boxes.