Can New York Adapt the Subway for the Climate Crisis?
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StudentNation
/ January 28, 2026
Can New York Adapt the Subway for the Climate Crisis?
As climate change leads to record rainfalls, the city’s 120-year-old subway system is more vulnerable to flooding than ever.
Ilana Cohen
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A flooded floor is blocked off in the 42nd Street Times Square subway station during a rain storm in New York.
(Jeenah Moon / Getty)
This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more StudentNation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If you’re a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to [email protected].
Only two months before Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s mayor at a decommissioned subway station beneath City Hall on January 1, stations across the city flooded following a record rainfall.
Videos of “waterfalls” forming inside stations circulated online, reflecting what has become a new norm of commuter chaos amid extreme weather events. In July, videos of passengers climbing their way out of a submerged station similarly went viral. During the summer, riders face sweltering heat in poorly ventilated stations, as 90 degrees Fahrenheit days and dire heat waves become more likely. In August, New York Governor Hochul ordered an investigation into New York City transit’s climate vulnerability.
As a largely underground system, the subway is profoundly vulnerable to flooding as climate change intensifies downpours, fuels coastal erosion, and raises sea levels that threaten to inundate entire neighborhoods. The need to adapt and upgrade the 120-year-old system, built for an entirely different climate, has become more pronounced amid concerns about a cost-of-living crisis that propelled Mamdani’s campaign, which focused on the intertwined issues of affordability and transit.
New York is racing against “a climate system that is changing very rapidly,” according to Louise Yeung, the city’s newly appointed chief climate officer. “And so as we’re rushing to make these improvements, we also need to be…catching up with the speed at which the climate is changing.”
These adaptation challenges are not limited to New York, according to Lykke Leonardsen, program director of Resilient & Sustainable City Solutions in Copenhagen, Denmark, who has collaborated with city officials mainly on the Cloudburst Program, designed to mitigate the effects of sudden, heavy downpours. Public transit …
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StudentNation
/ January 28, 2026
Can New York Adapt the Subway for the Climate Crisis?
As climate change leads to record rainfalls, the city’s 120-year-old subway system is more vulnerable to flooding than ever.
Ilana Cohen
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
A flooded floor is blocked off in the 42nd Street Times Square subway station during a rain storm in New York.
(Jeenah Moon / Getty)
This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more StudentNation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If you’re a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to [email protected].
Only two months before Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s mayor at a decommissioned subway station beneath City Hall on January 1, stations across the city flooded following a record rainfall.
Videos of “waterfalls” forming inside stations circulated online, reflecting what has become a new norm of commuter chaos amid extreme weather events. In July, videos of passengers climbing their way out of a submerged station similarly went viral. During the summer, riders face sweltering heat in poorly ventilated stations, as 90 degrees Fahrenheit days and dire heat waves become more likely. In August, New York Governor Hochul ordered an investigation into New York City transit’s climate vulnerability.
As a largely underground system, the subway is profoundly vulnerable to flooding as climate change intensifies downpours, fuels coastal erosion, and raises sea levels that threaten to inundate entire neighborhoods. The need to adapt and upgrade the 120-year-old system, built for an entirely different climate, has become more pronounced amid concerns about a cost-of-living crisis that propelled Mamdani’s campaign, which focused on the intertwined issues of affordability and transit.
New York is racing against “a climate system that is changing very rapidly,” according to Louise Yeung, the city’s newly appointed chief climate officer. “And so as we’re rushing to make these improvements, we also need to be…catching up with the speed at which the climate is changing.”
These adaptation challenges are not limited to New York, according to Lykke Leonardsen, program director of Resilient & Sustainable City Solutions in Copenhagen, Denmark, who has collaborated with city officials mainly on the Cloudburst Program, designed to mitigate the effects of sudden, heavy downpours. Public transit …
Can New York Adapt the Subway for the Climate Crisis?
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Current Issue
Environment
/
StudentNation
/ January 28, 2026
Can New York Adapt the Subway for the Climate Crisis?
As climate change leads to record rainfalls, the city’s 120-year-old subway system is more vulnerable to flooding than ever.
Ilana Cohen
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
A flooded floor is blocked off in the 42nd Street Times Square subway station during a rain storm in New York.
(Jeenah Moon / Getty)
This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more StudentNation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If you’re a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to [email protected].
Only two months before Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s mayor at a decommissioned subway station beneath City Hall on January 1, stations across the city flooded following a record rainfall.
Videos of “waterfalls” forming inside stations circulated online, reflecting what has become a new norm of commuter chaos amid extreme weather events. In July, videos of passengers climbing their way out of a submerged station similarly went viral. During the summer, riders face sweltering heat in poorly ventilated stations, as 90 degrees Fahrenheit days and dire heat waves become more likely. In August, New York Governor Hochul ordered an investigation into New York City transit’s climate vulnerability.
As a largely underground system, the subway is profoundly vulnerable to flooding as climate change intensifies downpours, fuels coastal erosion, and raises sea levels that threaten to inundate entire neighborhoods. The need to adapt and upgrade the 120-year-old system, built for an entirely different climate, has become more pronounced amid concerns about a cost-of-living crisis that propelled Mamdani’s campaign, which focused on the intertwined issues of affordability and transit.
New York is racing against “a climate system that is changing very rapidly,” according to Louise Yeung, the city’s newly appointed chief climate officer. “And so as we’re rushing to make these improvements, we also need to be…catching up with the speed at which the climate is changing.”
These adaptation challenges are not limited to New York, according to Lykke Leonardsen, program director of Resilient & Sustainable City Solutions in Copenhagen, Denmark, who has collaborated with city officials mainly on the Cloudburst Program, designed to mitigate the effects of sudden, heavy downpours. Public transit …
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