Sweaty, sweltering straphangers are asking something a lot these days.

"Yo man, it's hot in here, man! How the hell can you stand it in here?" one straphanger said.

But imagine working in this underground steam room 12 hours a day. That's the fate of vendors like Afirul Islam, stuck behind the counter of a newsstand on the lower level of the West 4th Street station, where it was more than 10 degrees hotter than the scorching temperatures outside.

"I have no A/C. Always I feel hot, too much hot," Islam said. "Very, very dangerous." 

So hot, vendors have to stash chocolate bars in a refrigerator so they won't melt. Not that many straphangers are buying. He says when the heat is on, sales are off.

"I have nothing to do," he said. "I used to."

But at a newsstand in the Barclays Center-Atlantic Avenue station, Amin Ullah sees a bit of an upside.

"Especially, they buy drinks a lot in the summer," he said.

"I don't know how they can stand it," said one commuter. "But personally, I couldn't. I couldn't take the heat like that. You know, I would have to choose another profession."

The MTA does not keep figures on how hot its subway stations get. But it's safe to assume that on days like these, the temperature wouldn't be unlike the one here at 14th Street on the 1, 2 and 3 lines, which checked in at a staggering 98 degrees.

Hot enough that these doo-wop singers don't have to be crooning to break a sweat.

"It's hot, sweaty and muggy," one of the singers said.

They say air-conditioned subway cars offer some relief.

"Mohammed didn't let the mountain come to him, he went to the mountain. And so I went to the train," said one of the workers.

That is, if the AC is working.