[www.nytimes.com]


In the sweaty days of August, when stifling subway platforms become almost unbearable, riders are even more anxious than usual for their trains to arrive so they can cool off inside.

Unless, of course, the air-conditioning on board is broken.

They are known as hot cars, and Tracey-Ann Johnson found herself stepping onto one on a northbound No. 1 train in Manhattan on Sunday after brunch.

“It’s hot today, and I thought I was going to be relieved,” Ms. Johnson, 34, of Upper Manhattan, said. “But instead I got the opposite.”

How hot was it aboard the train? “Like a furnace,” Ms. Johnson said before moving to another car at the next station.

If it seems that there are more hot cars on the tracks this summer, it is not just in riders’ imaginations; the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says reports of hot cars have increased. The authority says it is alerted to 12 to 16 of them each day, though officials note that this is a small share of the subway’s fleet of 6,300 cars.

Most of the problems are happening on two lines: the No. 1 train, which runs from the Bronx, through the West Side of Manhattan, to South Ferry station; and the No. 6 train, one of the most crowded lines in New York City, which runs from the Bronx, through the Upper East Side of Manhattan, to City Hall downtown. These lines use an older class of cars known as the R62A, which is more susceptible to breakdowns because it does not have the backup air-conditioner compressor that some newer models do.

The problematic R62A cars were built in the 1980s and are known for their bright-orange bucket seats. But in an expansive subway system that opened more than a century ago, they are not the oldest cars. That distinction belongs to the R32 class, built in the 1960s.

Riders have different approaches for dealing with hot cars. Some flee for a cooler car while others know to avoid empty cars, which are likely to be hot. Still others wait it out, no matter how steamy it gets.
On Sunday, as the temperature hovered around 85 degrees outside, Derrick Peterson sat resigned to his fate on a hot No. 1 car in Manhattan, preferring the heat over the crowds in adjacent cars.

“I usually stay because there are less people,” Mr. Peterson, a 44-year-old actor who lives in Brooklyn, said. “I kind of enjoy it because it’s quieter.”

On the same sweltering car, Brenda Baney was on her way to see the Statue of Liberty. Ms. Baney, a 55-year-old engineer visiting from Virginia, appeared unruffled by the saunalike conditions.

“We’ve already gotten sweaty today, and we’ll probably get sweatier still,” she said. “One short, hot ride is fine.”

The transportation authority has encouraged subway riders to report hot cars on Twitter, and to list the line and the car number of any offender so that workers can track it down. As the number of complaints has piled up, the radio station WNYC has documented some of the train cars that keep having problems.

Twitter posts sent to the New York City subway account make up a trail of misery. “If you want to lose 20 pounds, I suggest sitting in that car,” one post read this month. “You guys really chose the hottest summer to slack off,” another rider wrote. The account responds with a generic reply: “Regrets for any unpleasant conditions, and thank you for letting us know. We will notify supervision.”

A spokeswoman for the authority, Beth DeFalco, said that the agency tried to move hot cars to rail yards for repairs as quickly as possible, but that workers could not take the cars out of service during rush hour without affecting service. Most of the repair work must be completed at night or on weekends, she said.

Inside a hot car on the No. 1 line on Sunday, Kelvia Rosario was worried that her brother’s birthday cake was going to melt. Ms. Rosario, 33, of Washington Heights, had set the cake on a subway seat, along with a picnic basket and a jumble of balloons. It was too much to move, so she waited it out on the warm car, her frustration growing.

“They always raise the fares,” she said, “and they don’t do the right maintenance to the trains.”