![]() ![]() ![]() On a particularly steamy day this August, officials from the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a tri-state transit policy group, brought thermometers down into some of the busiest hubs in the city. “It’s very inefficient, because the air just kind of escapes through the tunnels,” he said.This is, of course, not a laughing matter: I know a handful of people personally who have fainted underground. Other options that Barone thinks might be worth looking at include platform screen doors in some places, to facilitate air conditioned platforms, cooling stations for the young and elderly, and more active ventilation systems, like the sort the 7 train extension and Second Avenue Subway will have.Īt the present, Barone knows of only one subway platform in the subway that’s air-conditioned: the 4, 5, 6 platform in Grand Central Station. “Lighter trains would require less energy to operate, and they should also produce less heat,” Barone said. One option they’re investigating? Lighter trains. London has been investigating ways to reduce heat in its subway system too. New York City is not the only city to have dealt with this problem. Electronics are both increasingly prevalent in the system and, according to Barone, even more sensitive to heat than the older, less sophisticated equipment. Heat is bad for the system’s equipment too, as the report notes. “At some of our stations, we’re close to that tipping point where it’s unbearable for the customer.” “There comes a breaking point for us, as far as people fainting, health problems, people getting sick,” Barone said. Independent of climate change, the subway system already produces far more heat than it used to, thanks to innovations like subway-car air conditioning and electronics, which together throw off energy. “They had to actually poke holes in the sidewalks” for ventilation. “When it was first designed, it was too hot,” he said. It’s a steamer.”īarone said excessive heat has been a problem as long as there’s been a subway in New York City, and that it would have to get worse as outside temperatures rise. “Just because the way the station is designed. “Go to Union Square on not even a really hot day,” he said. Richard Barone, the director of transportation programs at the Regional Plan Association, described the station heat issue as a “big problem.” ![]() is expected to release the “reinvention commission” final report shortly, and it had no further comment. ![]()
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