Tehran This Week: Funeral Crowds, Metro Delays, and a Heat Emergency That Won't Let Up

Tehran came to something close to a standstill this week. The funeral ceremonies for the Supreme Leader drew hundreds of thousands of mourners into the city centre, overwhelming public transport, closing major arteries from Azadi Square to Imam Khomeini Square, and turning Valiasr Avenue — the longest street in the Middle East at roughly 18 kilometres — into an open-air procession corridor that traffic authorities had not seen since the 2020 funeral of Qasem Soleimani. Road closures began on Wednesday evening and several routes remained partially restricted as of Thursday afternoon.

The timing could hardly be more difficult for a city already under serious strain. July is always brutal in Tehran, but temperatures this week reached 41 degrees Celsius in the Shahrak-e Gharb district on Tuesday, and the municipal emergency services reported a spike in heat-related hospital admissions across western Tehran. That is the immediate context: the city is managing a national moment of grief at the same time as a public health emergency, with infrastructure that was already struggling before either crisis arrived.

Metro, Traffic, and the Cost of Getting Around

Tehran Metro's Line 3, the east-west axis running from Baharestan to Chitgar, recorded severe overcrowding on Wednesday as road closures pushed commuters underground. Passengers reported waiting 25 to 30 minutes on platforms at Mirdamad station during morning peak hours — roughly four times the normal interval. The Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Operation Company acknowledged service disruptions in a brief statement posted to its Telegram channel but did not give a timeline for normalisation.

The disruption hit workers in the Elahieh and Jordan neighbourhoods particularly hard, since bus rapid-transit routes along the northern belt road were also diverted. Informal taxi drivers — orange cabs operating out of Tajrish Square — were charging up to 800,000 rials for short journeys that would normally cost 200,000 rials, according to residents who contacted The Daily Tehran. Whether the Tehran Taxi Organisation will investigate the surge pricing is unclear, though the agency has acted on similar complaints before.

Separately, the municipality confirmed this week that Phase 2 of the Imam Ali Highway widening project, which affects the stretch between the Resalat interchange and the eastern ring road, is running approximately four months behind its original March 2026 completion date. Construction crews are now expected to finish by October at the earliest, meaning the bottleneck at the Resalat tunnel will continue through the summer.

Air Quality and the Heat Emergency

Tehran's Air Quality Index hit 156 — classified as unhealthy — on Monday, driven by a combination of heat, low wind and vehicle emissions that the Department of Environment's monitoring station in Aghdasieh recorded at midday. The last time the city recorded three consecutive days above 150 was August 2023. Schools and universities are closed for summer, which limits exposure for children, but the elderly population in densely built southern Tehran neighbourhoods like Shush and Molavi are considered at high risk.

The Tehran Firefighting and Emergency Services Organisation opened 14 cooling centres across the city on Tuesday, including facilities at the Iran Mall complex in the far northwest and at the Shahid Beheshti Cultural Centre in Narmak. Both sites were reported to be at capacity by Wednesday afternoon. The Red Crescent Society of Iran deployed mobile hydration units to Baharestan Square and along the northern stretch of Valiasr, targeting mourners standing for hours in direct sunlight.

City officials have not yet issued a formal heat emergency declaration, though the threshold under Tehran's crisis management protocols is typically three consecutive days above 40 degrees — a benchmark the city hit this week.

Residents should expect continued road restrictions around Behesht-e Zahra cemetery and the city centre through at least Friday, when final funeral rites are scheduled. Anyone travelling by private car should check the Tehran Traffic Control Company's real-time map before leaving home. For those managing without air conditioning, the municipality has published a list of all 14 cooling centres on the Tehran Municipality website at tehran.ir — the list is updated daily and includes operating hours.