How do they keep snow and rain from entering the subway stations?

Question

When the station is like open stairs on a sidewalk.. wouldn't snow and rain fall into the stairway and run into the station if there are no doors at the bottom? And even if there are doors wouldn't it get plugged up? I wonder how this works

Answer 1

If you notice, there are drains across the steps at the midway point as you go down. Also the roof is designed to prohibit rain from dropping directly onto the subway platform.

Answer 2

Good old-fashioned techniques. Ceilings with good coverage. Proper drainage. Liberal use of salt to melt snow. BTW, I have been to several subway stations all over the world where they are NOT able to keep the rain and snow out.

Answer 3

A subway is nothing more than a very large longtitudinal cellar. And just as drains are used to keep a cellar filling with water, so they are used to stop torrential rains from flooding down the steps and into the stations. Of more of a problem, really, is keeping out underground water from flooding both the stations and the tunnels, and to cope with this most subway systems have pumps working 24/7. There was recently a programme on UK TV discussing what would happen to the world if man suddenly ceased to exist. This pointed out that the New York Subway would be totally flooded within about 24 hours of the electricity system (and hence the pumps)  failing.