It’s tricky to stay cool in the hot summer days in the city, but subway passengers in Moscow can now cool down all summer by using free water and wet wipes.
Officials say that on hot days they’ll be handing out more than 300,000 bottles of water and 200, 000 cooling hand wipes to help the capital’s commuters stay comfortable. They’ll also be giving out 11,000 hand-held fans, a statement on the metro’s official website says. It doesn’t specify how hot it must be for the items to be made available. Russiahas endured regular summer heatwaves in recent years. In 2010, Moscow saw temperatures rise to 40℃ with heavy smog, and other parts of the country experienced wildfires。
Officials say they will distribute more than 300,000 bottles of water and 200,000 cooled wet tissues in hot weather to help commuters in the capital stay comfortable. The official website of the subway issued a statement saying that they will also distribute 11,000 hand-held small fans. The statement did not specify how hot it would be to distribute these items. In recent years, Russia has been hit by summer heat waves. In 2010, the temperature in Moscow reached 40 degrees Celsius, accompanied by severe smog, and other areas suffered from forest fires.
Metro officials are also trying to cool down station buildings by leaving the doors open overnight while trains aren’t running. For the past week, 11 stations have tested out the plan, and seen the temperature drop by 5℃ to 7℃ compared to nights when the station doors were shut, the statement says. Moscow’s underground is one of the busiest in the world, with 196 stations serving more than seven million passengers per day. The network’s older trains rely on windows for ventilation, although they are gradually being replaced by newer, air-conditioned carriages。
Subway officials also tried to cool the subway station by opening the door of the subway station building all night when the subway stopped. The statement said that last week, 11 subway stations had implemented the plan on a pilot basis, and it was quite effective-the temperature of subway stations was reduced by 5 to 7 degrees Celsius compared with when the doors were closed. Moscow’s subway is one of the busiest in the world, with 196 subway stations and more than 7 million passengers per day. The old subways of this transportation network rely on windows as ventilation equipment, but they have been gradually replaced by new cars with air conditioning.
Vocabulary
Freebie: free gifts
Hand wipe: wet tissue
Ventilation: ventilation
Carriage: carriage
(English source: BBC Translator: Chen Xuxuan SCNU Editor: Xu Jingjing, Hou Weiping)