In Germany, despite the heat, officials decided to cut costs on air conditioning in the new subway system
In Dortmund, Germany, the transportation company DSW21 decided to cut costs when purchasing new subway cars and opted not to install air conditioning. This decision was made amid the extreme heatwave that has swept across Europe.
Fitting the cars with air conditioning would have cost an additional 70 million euros. The company explained that these funds would be better spent on additional vehicles. In addition, foregoing this option will save a significant amount of electricity—about 7 million kilowatt-hours per year. This is equivalent to the consumption of more than 2,000 average households.
The decision to forego air conditioning was met with confusion by some passengers. One user of the new trains said, “There’s money for everything else, but not for this. I don’t think it’s right.” Another mentioned the “wall of heat” they had to face when boarding the train from the cool underground station.
The transportation company’s operations manager acknowledged that on hot days, the lack of air conditioning results in a “loss of comfort.” However, he added that most people only ride the train for a few stops.
Dortmund isn’t the only major city that has opted out of air conditioning in its public transit system. The new trains on the Berlin subway also lack air conditioning. However, the argument there was that air conditioning units take up too much space. Trains, on which these units are typically mounted on the roof, would no longer be able to pass through all the subway tunnels without obstruction.
This was reported by Spiegel.
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