Tube travel will soon be far less painful in the heat
LONDON truly comes alive in the summer. We also know that travelling around the capital in a heatwave is not always pleasant. We are making real headway towards cooling the Tube. We now have 192 air-conditioned trains on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, serving 40 per cent of the network. The London Overground fleet is also air-conditioned. However, as a Northern line customer I know only too well that challenges remain in managing temperatures in deeper parts of the network.
When the “Deep Tube” tunnels were built around 130 years ago, keeping them cool wasn’t an issue. Tunnel temperatures then were just 14 degrees. Fast-forward to 2018, and following TfL’s Tube modernisation programme, it’s a different picture. With London’s growth there is a need for faster, more frequent trains — there’s a train every 100 seconds on the Victoria line at peak times — which means more heat is generated in the narrow Deep Tube tunnels. Half of it comes from trains applying their brakes, with the rest generated by aerodynamic friction and the motors that power the trains. Nearly 80 per cent of this heat is absorbed by tunnel walls, making them and the trains warmer.
Big improvements are coming. In December the new Elizabeth line will open, transforming travel across the city. Customers will be amazed by the spacious and f u t u r i s t i c s te p -f re e stations we have been creating deep beneath the ground at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Fa r r i n g d o n , L i ve r p o o l S t re e t , Whitechapel and beyond. Alongside these feats of engineering, the new trains are all air-conditioned.
From 2022 the Docklands Light Railway will get new air-conditioned trains, and from 2023, the Piccadilly line will get 94 new state-of-the-art, airconditioned trains. It’ll be the first line to be upgraded under the wider Deep Tube Upgrade Programme, which will go on to bring air-conditioned trains to the Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City lines too.
In the meantime we are investing millions of pounds to make the Tube cooler. There are enhanced ventilation systems on both the Victoria and Jubilee lines, with a similar system planned for the Northern line later this summer. And on the older parts of the network, which have fewer ventilation shafts, we have introduced station cooling systems including industrial-sized fans and chiller units to pump in cold air.
I advise all our customers to carry water with them, offer a seat to those who may need it, don’t board a train if you feel unwell and, if you feel ill while travelling, get off at the next stop where our staff can provide assistance. By following these steps I hope customers can continue to enjoy our capital while we work behind the scenes to make conditions better for everyone.
⬤ Mark Wild is the managing director of London Underground