Why are there no air conditioners in New York subway stations, even though it is unbearably hot there?

There are few places on Earth that are hotter than a New York City subway platform on a summer day. The combination of heat, humidity and dampness in the basement creates a truly nightmarish mixture. Jalopnik explains why there is no air conditioning on subway platforms.

Causes of the hellish heat in Metro you will be surprised. Air conditioning on trains is making subway platforms increasingly hotter.

Once the city authorities tried to correct the situation, but it did not help. In New York City, blowers called "spot coolers" were installed back in 2000. In the end, they only lowered the temperature by a few degrees.

Problem with the cooling system

According to Jamie Torres-Springer, chief of construction for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, spot coolers were more the product of random luck than a harbinger of system-wide air conditioning.

“Grand Central has a full refrigeration facility,” Torres-Springer said.
The equipment provides cooling for the terminal above. It cools the water, which then circulates throughout all units providing spot cooling on the platform.

On the subject: Ten disgusting actions of New York subway passengers: what should be banned instead of masks

“But from an engineering perspective, the basic fact is that an old system like our subway system is not designed for air conditioning,” Torres-Springer explained.

Almost every kilometer of the route is open to the atmosphere through stairs and sidewalk gratings.

“So just like your air conditioning doesn’t work well if you have your windows open, air conditioning on a subway platform doesn’t work well,” he said.

The problem worsened when air conditioning was installed in train cars.

In the post-war years, passengers began to demand the installation of air conditioning to replace fans that merely circulated stale air. By purchasing 1967 air-conditioned carriages in 600, the city administration moved things forward. It wasn't until 1993 that the Department of Transportation announced that 99% of train cars were air-conditioned.

Unfortunately, air conditioners that remove hot air from cars dump it directly into tunnels and stations, which perfectly capture this air.

Good news

Some progress has been made on new stations all over the city.

Temperatures are noticeably cooler at the system's newest stations, including the 7 extension of the 2015 Line to Hudson Yards and the three new Second Avenue subway stops that opened in 2017.

The pleasant temperature there is created thanks to the so-called cooling towers.

Fans force air through pipes filled with a mixture of cold water and glycol. In the language of specialists, this is called “air-cooled climate control.”

“It's not a complete air conditioning solution,” Torres-Springer noted. – But this way you can maintain the temperature lower than in a heated environment. This helps reduce humidity in the station, which is very valuable.”