The MTA receives thousands of complaints about broken air conditioning on subway cars each summer.
New York City’s aging subway cars are having a hard time keeping up with extreme heat, reports Ramsey Khalifeh in Gothamist, with the MTA receiving thousands of complaints about temperatures on the trains each summer.
The system’s three hottest lines (those with the most complaints) use some of the oldest subway cars. Line 1, which runs from the Battery to the North Bronx, received 2,934 complaints between 2020 and mid-July 2024. According to Gothamist’s own recon, two different 1 train cars clocked temperatures of 92 and 93 degrees. “Both were in service without functioning AC’s, but neither were reflected in the MTA data for having a high number of hot car complaints.”
Khalifeh writes that “The MTA plans to replace all those aging train cars in the coming years through its new capital plan, but riders are stuck with unreliable cooling systems in the meantime.”
Read the full story: MTA data reveals how NYC's hottest subway cars bake 1 train riders
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