The MTA is on the lookout for methods to chill steamy subway platforms by probably tapping into geothermal applied sciences, information reveal.
The transit company final week issued a request for data to assemble insights into whether or not techniques dug beneath the earth may sometime be used to fight warmth and humidity in sauna-like stations. The Sept. 18 request particularly seeks data on methods to chill the No. 1 line’s cavernous 168th and 181st road stations, two of the deepest in Higher Manhattan.
“It’s sweaty, it’s bad, it’s rough,” stated Cain Yankou, 23, who fanned herself Wednesday afternoon whereas ready for a practice at 168th Road. “Every time I come into this station, it’s always so hot and everyone that I know who uses it always complains about the heat.”
The MTA’s try to put a chill via sweltering stations the place temperatures can go north of 100 levels in the summertime comes on the heels of the company’s “Climate Resilience Roadmap.” The April 2024 report initiatives that the variety of days when the mercury tops 90 levels will improve three-fold between now and the 2050s — with the variety of warmth waves surging from two per 12 months to seven.
So the MTA needs to discover whether or not a know-how that’s now extra generally utilized in buildings can work throughout the 121-year-old subway system.
Eric Wilson, MTA Building & Growth’s senior vp of local weather and land-use technique, stated excessive warmth, together with coastal and inland flooding, are among the many climate-change challenges dealing with the transit system.
“We’re trying to develop our toolkit here, particularly for retrofitting stations,” Wilson advised THE CITY. “Our stations were built in the early 20th century when there was a different climate and going forward, we’re just going to have to figure out what tools we have in order to mitigate these risks.”
When the subway was constructed, underground stations and tunnels have been designed to flow into air via passive “piston effect” air flow that depends on shifting subway vehicles to expel scorching air and usher in cooler air. On the time, warmth was generated largely by the friction of braking trains, however heat-generating elements now embrace communications and electronics gear, air-con on trains onto platforms, in addition to A/C items that maintain gear cool.
The 181st subway station cuts via the bedrock in Higher Manhattan. Wednesday, September 24, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
“You have all those motors, the subways themselves, you name it,” stated Jens Ponikau of the New York Geothermal Power Affiliation, a gaggle that represents the geothermal heat-pump trade throughout the state. “There is a lot of heat produced down there and then it accumulates and there’s nowhere to go.”
The MTA presently makes use of “air-tempering systems” to chill platforms at simply seven of its 472 stations — together with the Q line stops that opened beneath Second Avenue in 2017, the sprawling thirty fourth Road-Hudson Yards No. 7 line terminal that opened in 2015 and the South Ferry-Whitehall advanced in Decrease Manhattan.
All of these newer stations have been designed with above-ground ancillary cooling towers that home gear that enables for cooling in sweltering stations. At six different stops, together with Bowling Inexperienced on the No. 4 and 5 traces and Christopher Road-Stonewall on the No. 1, platform followers are used to flow into air.
Subway followers blow scorching air on the 14th Road-Union Sq. Station. Tuesday, September 23, 2025. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
The MTA’s 2024 report on the “existential threat” of local weather change to the transit system initiatives that inside 1 / 4 century, New Yorkers can anticipate between 30 and 70 high-heat days — up from 18 at present.
“We’re in a climate crisis, so it makes sense to look at all renewable sources and innovative ideas to cool the subways,” stated Kate Slevin, govt vp at Regional Plan Affiliation. “It’s not an easy task — the system is incredibly large and old, so it’s going to take a variety of strategies to bring the temperatures down in the stations, especially as we see warmer summers every year.”
Geothermal know-how depends on a pump system to faucet into the earth to be able to cool buildings on hotter days and to warmth them throughout colder climate.
“It’s into the earth and out of the earth,” Ponikau stated. “It’s more or less a thermal battery-storage system where you take advantage of the relatively constant temperature under the ground and you either inject heat into it or you take heat out of it.”
In response to the MTA, any viable geothermal cooling know-how for the 2 Higher Manhattan stations would wish to supply “cost-effective localized cooling” throughout “high ambient temperature days” with a mean temperature between 82 and 85 levels.
‘Like a Sauna’
The know-how, in line with the request for data, would wish to have the ability to face up to metal mud concentrations, water circumstances, vandalism and fixed shaking and excessive vibrations.
RPA’s June 2018 “Save Our Subways” plan made a collection of suggestions for cooling the transit system, together with lowering the warmth generated by trains and designing future traces to be extra energy-efficient. THE CITY reported in July that the MTA has additionally begun on the lookout for methods to include lighter exterior automobile shells onto its subway fleet to be able to expend much less power.
Wilson, the MTA govt for local weather and land-use technique, stated the New York Metropolis subway system is hardly alone in dealing with actual and rising warmth challenges. However he added that it’s believed to be the primary older system to discover if stations might be outfitted with typical geothermal know-how.
“That’s a tangible benefit of the MTA devoting real resources to taking climate change seriously,” he stated. “It’s early, but we hope to see real promise in this technology.”
As she waited for a No. 1 practice Wednesday at 181st Road, Veronica Bjork tried to maintain cool by holding a dealt with mini-fan as much as her face.
“It’s like a sauna, you can’t even breathe down here in the summer,” she stated. “The summer is disgusting, and right now it’s not as bad, but you can still feel the humidity and how nasty it is.”
Bjork stated she would welcome any makes an attempt by the MTA to assist riders escape the warmth.
“At least get some fans or something,” she stated. “It’s so, so hot down here.”
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