Mayor Zohran Mamdani and state officials this week announced plans to cool New York City subway platforms that turn into saunas during the summer. The mayor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are teaming up to study thermal energy networks (TENs) at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and Chamber Street complex, among the city’s hottest subway platforms. The technology, the first in the nation installed in a transit system, involves capturing, storing, and recycling the excess heat to surrounding buildings in the winter. The TENs study will be part of a thorough renovation of the Chambers Street station, one of the city’s oldest.
Funded using congestion pricing revenues from the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital Plan, the much-needed renovation of the 113-year-old Chambers Street station would rebuild, replace, and upgrade structures, tiles, and stairways, as well as repair leaks and assess water damage. The MTA will assign a contract to move forward on the renovation by the end of this year.
The Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall 4/5/6 station recorded average summer temperatures as high as 96 degrees in 2025. The top-to-toe modernization project offers an opportunity to study TENs as a way of cooling subway platforms and reusing the excess heat in nearby municipal buildings, which would lead to a long-term reduction of energy costs.
The heat would be captured in boreholes that run between 500 and 600 feet underground. A system of circulating pumps and pipes will bring the heat from below the surface to warm the municipal office buildings above, as the mayor said during a press conference on Monday.
“This would be the first thermal energy system of its kind in any American transit system, a historic feat that would not only help the city to save money and limit steam consumption but help us mitigate the extreme level of heat in our subway stations,” Mamdani said.
Heat-related issues can lead to service delays. For its part, the MTA prioritizes dependable service and air-conditioned trains to minimize the time riders spend on platforms, but the new study aims to improve rider comfort even further.
“For years, New Yorkers have suffered through sweltering summer heat on subway platforms, with seemingly no hope for a cooler ride in sight. Today, I can assure riders during this hot summer week that help is on the way,” Hochul said in a statement.
“Working with Mayor Mamdani and the MTA, we are harnessing cutting-edge climate technology for a truly cool purpose: making our subway stations tolerable during the summer and heating critical city buildings during the winter. This is what effective partnership between city and state government can yield—innovative solutions that have the potential to help millions of subway riders.”
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