When the London Underground was new, Victora was Queen, chimneys had sweeps and England was more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. But 60% of the Tube system that helped save London from Nazi bombs is now an unairconditioned health hazard on days hot enough to bend track.

Meanwhile, the New York subway hasn’t slept since 1904, and service-suspending waterfalls are becoming more common in every downpour , as platform vents become catchment basins and flash floods gush down the stairs.

Even the world’s newest systems are getting harsh lessons in the designs needed to survive an overheating Earth. When 2021 brought 8 inches of rain in a single hour to Zhengzhou , China, subway cars resembled leaking submarines full of panicked families. Fourteen people perished on a line that was less

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