One of the hardest-hit areas of New York City is the Rockaways, a thin peninsula of land that faces out into the Atlantic Ocean. Usually, public transit users can take the subway over a long bridge that cuts straight from the main bit of Brooklyn, but post-Sandy, that’s just not happening. But the MTA is working on a solution and it involves flying subway cars.

These subway cars are not actually magic flying subway cars. (Boo.) Instead, they’re being lifted up to load them onto trucks, which will take them to the Rockaways. They’ll run up and down the peninsula more or less like normal, but instead of crossing over the water, they’ll deposit passengers into shuttle buses, which … also will not actually fly. Ugh, what? Guys, I think you were REALLY CLOSE to a brilliant solution here.

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