After uncovering that NYCTA had also been using tropical hardwoods for subway track ties, Rainforest Relief has been directly engaging MTA on this issue since 2001. What instigated our first demonstration was the discovery that MTA had ordered ekki (azobe) — a species logged from the rainforests of west Africa — from a supplier that was ultimately linked to the destruction of rainforests and the illegal weapons trade in Liberia.

Brown and Bryan, an importer of tropical hardwoods, bought subway track ties destined for the NYCTA from a mill in the Netherlands called Wijma. In turn, that company was buying ekki logs from Oriental Timber Company, a notorious corporation in Liberia run by Gus Kouwenhoven, a right hand man working closely with the Liberia's then-president/dictator, Charles Taylor. Taylor’s administration has been linked by the UN to the illegal trade in diamonds and guns. Taylor had been running weapons to mercenary forces in Ivory Coast and other countries, in an attempt to destabilize the region. Kouwenhoven was censured by the UN in 2001.

NYCTA cancelled the order with Brown and Bryan, not because of their links to Liberian gun running and rainforest destruction, but because the first shipment of ties had been cut to the wrong size.

MTA switched their contract to William G. Moore, a company buying ekki from Cameroon, where illegal logging is rampant and where loggers facilitate the overhunting of wildlife for the trade in bushmeat that's wiping out west ekki, has embarked on a program to switch to RPL. They have purchased over 55,000 RPL rail track ties to-date.

Except for 100 ties bought to “test” RPL, NYCTA has yet to begin buying RPL ties. These ties have already been tested for years under the harshest conditions by major railroad companies. Conrail, one of the largest freight railroad companies in the country, has been testing RPL ties for over four years in their desert test bed and has found them superior to wood in every way, especially longevity.

MTA New York City Transit’s current president, Lawrence G. Reuter, took office in March 1996. The President reports to the MTA Executive Director, Katherine N. Lapp.

Send a message to NYCTA’s President, Lawrence G. Reuter, demanding that NYCTA state a date by which they will end their use of tropical hardwoods for subway track ties.