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MTA mulls cool new idea: Transferring heat out of subway stations
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Sep 26, 2025
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Ramsey Khalifeh
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Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Sep 26, 2025
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The MTA hopes the key to cooling down sweltering hot subway platforms is right beneath New Yorkers' feet.
The MTA is looking for information about new geothermal technology that could use the Earth’s subsurface to move and store heat, according to a request for information published by the agency last week. That process could allow a sweltering subway station's heat to be moved deeper below ground.
New York City’s subway system is notoriously hot in the summer months as riders wait for their trains on the platforms. According to the document, “underground subways have multiple additional heat sources,” including “heat generated from communications and electronics equipment, the air conditioning units that keep communications equipment cool and train car air conditioning units.”
The document said the cooling technology should achieve a target temperature between 82 and 85 degrees on a hot day for stations that are 120 feet deep. Installing the equipment is a big job, requiring workers to send pipes deep underground.
The MTA is targeting the 1 line's 168th Street and 181st Street stations, which are both particularly warm because they’re so deep underground. Riders at the stations on Thursday were fanning themselves and visibly sweating. The temperature above ground was a comfortable 75 degrees.
Commuter Maimouna Traore, who regularly uses the stations, said she has hyperhidrosis, which makes her sweat excessively.
“There should be some kind of AC or some kind of circulation, especially in the summer time,” said Traore, 22. “People get really hot and people can pass out.”
As for the idea of a new cooling system for her neighborhood station, Traore said “it should have been done.”
A woman fans herself in the sweltering 181st Street station.
Ramsey Khalifeh
MTA officials said since these stations are so deep, they can’t use street vents to channel hot air upwards and out of the platform.
“Retrofitting [stations] now in 2025 in such a densely populated city where every inch is accounted for is a tremendous challenge,” MTA Senior Manager for Climate Sustainability Planning Ricky Li said. “So instead of essentially looking up, we’re looking down, because we want to remove heat from within the station envelope and if we can’t put it in the outdoor environment, we can theoretically store it in the ground.”
Gothamist has previously reported that the 1 line is particularly prone to sweltering conditions. In June, Gothamist documented temperatures nearing 100 degrees at the line's 14th Street station. MTA data also showed that 1 train riders complained about broken air conditioning far more than on any other line.
The subway system already has different cooling systems for some of its stations. "Air tempering," which uses fans and dehumidifiers to remove heat from stations, is installed at newer MTA facilities, like the 7 line's Hudson Yards station and the Q line's three new Upper East Side stops.
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new york city
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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