By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — What’s real cool indoors when it’s sizzling hot outdoors? The 2, B, L, M and N subway lines.

A recent MTA New York City Transit study surveying the city subway lines’ air conditioning, reported on recently in the media, discovered that those five lines out of the 16 serving Brooklyn passed the AC car tests with a 100 percent rating.

But for riders traveling on the R line, subway cars are likely to have adequate AC only nine out of 10 times, with a 90.6 percent rating for its AC. This is next to the lowest — Manhattan-Queens’ E line is worse, at 83.3 percent — of all 22 lines surveyed.

When caught on an oppressively hot and stuffy R train car, some riders seeking relief have been seen scrambling quickly to a cooler car when the train stops at a station. Not mentioned in the study is the R line’s tendency during winter months to sometimes have the AC blasting when it is frigid outdoors.

The survey was done by transit workers during June and July, checking out 2,666 subway cars to get results. Temperatures had to be 78 degrees or cooler to be considered adequately air-conditioned. The system-wide pass-rate average was 97.3 percent, with 73 cars failing the temperature mark test. Back in 1987, when the MTA and the Straphangers Campaign surveyed the subway system on air-conditioning, more than 50 percent of subway cars surveyed lacked AC.

As mentioned, at the top of the list were the 2, B, L, M and N subway lines, mostly due to newer subway cars. The pass-rate for other subway lines were, in order: 5 at 99.3%, G at 98.8%, 4 at 98.6%, A at 98.4%, J/Z at 98.3%, Q at 97.9%, C at 97.5%, 3 and D tied at 95.8% and F at 94.4%.

Before AC was installed in subway cars, overhead-ceiling fans cooled the cars, making for “bad hair� days for hatless riders. The first AC units were installed on the F train on July 19, 1967, according to the MTA’s web site. In June 1975, the IRT lines — the numbered lines — began getting AC. By 1983, all new cars purchased by the TA were already equipped with AC.

Many of the subway cars with overhead ceiling fans, or small fans placed at places along the cars, can be viewed at the Transit Museum on Schermerhorn Street at Boerum Place.

Unlike fairly modern subway systems such as those in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., there are virtually no air-conditioned platforms in the entire city system, except on the IRT platform at Grand Central Station.

Riders entering the 95th Street R terminal station this past Monday morning walked onto platforms that felt like ovens, with no R train to enter to cool off. When a train finally entered a station, it was taken out of service, but another train with AC soon after entered, and riders quickly boarded getting much-needed relief.

Having cool subway cars is a prime directive for NYC Transit President Howard Roberts, Jr., who rewards maintenance superintendents for having the most AC cars with trophies. Those who fail get very large thermometers that they must place upon their desks as toasty reminders until they come up to speed with AC maintenance.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law.
Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues. So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net

Main Office 718 422 7400