As temperatures in the city climb toward the upper 90s for the second day in a row, New Yorkers are searching in vain for some relief from the heat. We huddle in air conditioned apartments and offices, hoping that the Con Ed power grid will hold up as the city’s streets remain empty. Of course, to get from one air conditioned site to another often requires a ride in the subway, and during heat waves, the temperatures below ground can spike. Take comfort though, in a Wall Street Journal investigative report: It’s actually cooler underground than it is above ground.
Armed with a store-bought thermometer, Joy Resmovits hit the streets. At Grand Central, enjoying air-controlled platforms, the temperatures were just 86.5 degrees while above ground the mercury hit 96. As temperatures reached 102 during the afternoon, the Times Square platforms registered at a downright chilly 99 degrees. But at 116th St., the differences were just a matter of one degree. Cooler they may be, the platforms are not comfortable.
Of course, this temporary equilibrium will last only as long as the heat wave does. Once outside temperatures drop to the high 80s, the platforms will remain stifling as heat generated by the subway’s air conditioners stays trapped underground. I’d rather have cooler train cars than not, but it doesn’t make waiting on intolerably hot platforms any easier during the dog days of a New York City summer.
When the MTA announced its doomsday service cuts, unlike most straphangers, I was actually excited about them. The revamped M train was to replace the V train in Manhattan. This would affect my commute significantly, since I normally take the J train into Manhattan and transfer to the F train at Essex Street / Delancey Street. The changes would create a new line that I could take all the way to work at 23rd Street and would give me time to sit and read on my commute rather than having to worry about transferring halfway through.
New Yorkers have a very stubborn relationship with history. In a city nearly 400 years old that does little to remember its past, the subways are but another example of the way we live in the present. As far as most riders are concerned, the subway map is immutable representation of where the trains go, where they have always gone and where they will go.
New Yorkers tend to view the subway map and the system’s current routes as something set in stone. The W has always run from Lower Manhattan to Astoria; the Q has now and forever been the Brighton local to Coney Island. In truth, it takes an encyclopedia memory of subway history to remember the myriad service changes and now-defunct routes that litter transit history. Anyone want to hop the QJ or NX with me?
