Climate Crisis Turns World’s Subways Into Flood Zones

and Terrified passengers in Zhengzhou, . Water into the London Underground. A woman to reach a New York City subway platform. Subway systems around the world are struggling to adapt to an era of extreme weather brought on by climate change. Their designs, many based on the expectations of another era, are being overwhelmed, and investment in upgrades could be squeezed by a brought on by the pandemic. Its scary, said Sarah Kaufman, associate director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University. The challenge is, how can we get ready for the next storm, which was supposed to be 100 years away, she said, but could happen tomorrow? Public transportation plays a critical role in reducing travel by car in big cities, thus reining in the emissions from automobiles that contribute to global warming. If commuters become spooked by images of inundated stations and start shunning subways for private cars, transportation experts say it could have major implications for urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Some networks, such as or New Yorks, were designed and built starting more than a century ago. While a few, like Tokyos, have managed to shore up their flooding defenses, the crisis in China this week shows that even some of the worlds newest systems ( s system isnt even a decade old) can also be overwhelmed. Retrofitting subways against flooding is an enormous undertaking, said Robert Puentes, chief executive of the Eno Center for Transportation, a nonprofit think tank with a focus on improving transportation policy. But when you compare it to the cost of doing nothing, it starts to make much more sense, he said. The cost of doing nothing is much more expensive. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and your Times account, or for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? . Want all of The Times? .