Congestion pricing funds a pilot to cool the underground furnace New Yorkers call the J train platform
A very expensive way to confirm what every rider already knew
New York City has launched an 800,000 dollar pilot study into whether thermal energy networks can cool subway stations that regularly run far hotter than street level, according to ABC7 New York’s coverage of the announcement. City Hall officials described platforms turning into underground saunas during summer, a diagnosis that will surprise absolutely no one who has ever waited for the J train in August.
Science catching up with lived experience
Commuters have informally measured subway heat for years using increasingly creative units, sweat through shirt count, minutes until regret, general proximity to a small personal crisis. Officials now have official data confirming stations can run twenty degrees hotter than street level, a number riders could have supplied for free.
The funding source raises an eyebrow or two
The study will draw on congestion pricing revenue, the same toll program marking its first anniversary with reported drops in Manhattan traffic, according to coverage from CBS New York. Drivers paying to enter Manhattan are, in effect, quietly subsidising everyone else’s air conditioning underground.
Fazit
Eight hundred thousand dollars to study heat that every straphanger diagnosed years ago, free of charge. SOURCE: https://abc7ny.com/post/nyc-eyes-first-us-transit-thermal-energy-network-fight-subway-heat/19655621/ For more British satire on a related theme, see The London Prat’s Nigel Farage’s Farage Fest.