Stan Fischler has a dream. 

OK, so it's no Martin Luther King kinda dream, but it's a dream,
 nonetheless. Fischler, that ornery Brooklynite best known for six
 decades of hockey coverage, wants the Transit Authority to preserve a
 handful of "Redbirds" -- those World's Fair-era trains that run on the
 2, 5 and 7 lines -- when it takes all 1,500 cars out of service later
 this year.

The numbers-crunchers at the Transit Authority, however, have a different
 dream. They want to dump those "obsolete" Redbirds -- which actually
 perform better and stay in service longer than newer cars -- into the
 ocean to create artificial reefs where fish can breed.

For now, they seem to be the only ones dreaming this impossible (to
 believe) dream.

Governments up and down the Eastern Seaboard have rejected the plan
 (apparently, the cars contain asbestos), but now Dover, Delaware is
 considering allowing the Transit Authority to submerge half of the
 Redbird fleet off its coast.

"Can you imagine the stupidity?" Fischler said the other day over a bagel
 at Barney Greengrass. "They want to take historic subway cars and dump
 them in the ocean! Forget about the environmental hazard, think of the
 waste of these cars."

It's not that The Hockey Maven wants to stand in the way of progress --
 the 40-year-old R-12s are slated to be replaced by shiny new cars -- but
 Fischler's "Save the Redbirds" campaign seeks the preservation of 20 of
 the unique red-and-silver cars, 10 for the Transit Museum (which may not
 want all of them) and 10 to continue running along the 7 line out to
 Shea Stadium.

"We're not asking for the moon," said Fischler, a guy who will actually
 wait for a Redbird on the 2 line rather than jump on a sterile,
 stainless-steel 3 train (I've seen him do it).

Transit Authority spokesman Bob Slovak refused to comment on Fischler's
 plan. "If someone has a proposal, let's hear it," Slovak said,
 dismissively. Slovak said that despite the rejections, the TA is
 aggressively pursuing its ocean-dumping plan.

Fischler's dream is not merely the ranting of a subway-loving crank (and
 what if it was?!), but a reality in some places. San Francisco, a city
 that revels in its transportation history, not only spends lavishly to
 keep its celebrated trolleys in service, but also has a line on Market
 Street that's comprised of historic cars from all over the country.

One of the cars is even from Brooklyn. Yes, you read that right: The only
 Brooklyn trolley car still in service in this country is in SAN
 FRANCISCO, not in New York. (Nice. It's bad enough that California took
 the Dodgers from Brooklyn. Now they also have one of the trolleys
 Brooklynites used to dodge!)

The line is reminiscent of New York's "Nostalgia Special," which ran from
 midtown to the Transit Museum in Brooklyn in the late-1970s and featured
 historic cars -- including one that had been driven by LaGuardia
 himself.

That didn't stop the TA from killing it in 1980 -- and throwing the
 historic cars on the scrap heap (apparently no one was dumping trains in
 the ocean back then).

For Fischler, the "Save the Redbirds" campaign is personal. "I grew up in
 Williamsburg," he said, launching into a digression on Brooklyn, which
 ranks a close third to hockey (#1) and subways (#2) as Fischler's
 passions.

"The IND built a station right under my building. I could hear the train
 coming in and the doors opening. I used to imagine the people getting
 out. I'd think, `Is that my friend Abe Yurkofsky or Sheldon Greenblatt
 getting off that train?' So of course I'm in love with the subway
 system."

The first step (now that the Stanley Cup Finals are over, that is) will
 be to derail this ocean-dumping plan. Fortunately, anyone with common
 sense is a natural ally.

"We were initially excited about it because artificial reefs enlarge fish
 breeding grounds," said Jim Mathias, mayor of Ocean City, Maryland. "But
 when we heard the word `asbestos,' we changed course. The last thing a
 tourist town like ours needs is getting a nickname like `Asbestos Reef.'
 That's a name that sticks, like `Dead Man's Curve.'"

--30--

email: gershny@yahoo.com