Tonight:
4°c
Warm welcome for first air-con Tube train
Felix Allen21 Oct 2009
London's first air-conditioned Tube train arrived today on a low-loader lorry before being driven along the tracks from Amersham to Neasden.
It will enter service next year - one of 58 S-stock trains which also feature walk-through cars and wider doors and walkways that will replace rolling stock on the Metropolitan line by 2011.
Nearly 200 are being brought in over the next six years on the Circle, District and Hammermith & City lines. Boris Johnson said today's delivery was a "milestone in the rebuilding of our transport system". But passengers will have to wait years for air-conditioning on deep lines such as the Central, Northern and Bakerloo, which get hottest in summer, because they are too deep to expel the heat pushed out by air conditioning.
The delivery came on the day the board of Transport for London was meeting to agree its new business plan, which promises to guarantee key investments over the next decade.
Last week the Mayor announced Tube and bus fare rises of up to 20 per cent as TfL struggles to save £3.6billion. Mr Johnson said today: "It is essential that we keep investing in London's critical transport projects."
Reader views (15)
Roy, dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide.
If you had a wagon of it in a confined space, like a tube line, you'd probably end up with a platform of passengers who were asphixiated.
- George, London, 22/10/2009 16:12
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Roy, Billericay, towing wagons of dry ice would require either longer trains, which would require resignalling and possibly not be possible at some stations, or shorter trains in terms of passenger-carrying cars. Either way would result in less capacity. Even more difficult is that with the exception of the Heathrow and Kennington loops, none of the lines terminates in a loop, so the rear of a train going in one direction becomes the front of it when it makes its return journey. There'd be no way to swap the wagon around, and I don't think pushing a wagon ahead of the driver's cab would be allowed for safety reasons.
- Roy, England, 22/10/2009 14:24
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The MRT is Singapore has air con, full mobile reception and is so clean you could eat your diner off the floor (except eating is not allowed, and unlike on TfL this law is NEVER flouted). It also costs a darn sight less to travel on. The only downside is that there are not many seats.
- Paul, London, 22/10/2009 13:46
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I am no scientist but it seems obvious that no conventional form of air-con will work on deep tunnels for the vary reasons that many of your readers point out!
Why I were a mere Lad market traders sold cold drinks using "dry ice". Some years ago I suggested that tube trains could "tow waggons loaded with dry-ice to provide heat sinks to cool the tunnels and with them the trains"
Any science geeks out there who can tell me I am an idiot = or might it just work?
- Roy, Billericay Essex, 21/10/2009 16:38
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Any transport projects coming through at the moment are down to Ken, it takes years for planning and implementation to take place, but no doubt boris will try and take the credit.... lets see what projects are delivered in 5 years time from Boris.....
- Simon James, London, 21/10/2009 15:41
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Well done Dave Davies. Without Ed this would never have happened.
- Paul, London, 21/10/2009 15:23
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Yet another triumph for former Mayor Ken who not only managed to invest billions in Londons transport but he also reduced fares!!
In fact he reduced bus fares as they were making to much money but then he was'nt wasting money on vanity buses when the world bus companies had cheaper buses ready to buy of the shelf!!!
Oh bye the way these are NOT tube trains they are sub-surface trains built to run in tunnels that were built using cut and cover construction. That is why they are known as S- Stock.
The seating on the trains to be used on the Longer Metropolian line will include some transverse seats as agreed with local bodies the rest of the fleet will only have longditudinal seating.
I doubt if air conditioned tube trains will ever be possible as the simple truth is there is nowhere for the heat generated by air conditioning to be sent.
However, one could be to re-configure the underground by making the Piccadilly line only serve Heathrow with the Rayners Lane branch added to the District line thus allowing this stretch to get sub surface trains and allow the section to Uxbridge to be sub surface only thus aiding step free access by having a common platform height.
If only the section of tunnels between Finchley Road and Baker Street had been enlarged the Jubilee Line could have been built with a tunnels that allowed air conditioned trains.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 21/10/2009 15:03
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AlanInBow, do you ever use the tube (particularly the Metropolitan line)? Most of it is above ground, the rest does have ventilation shafts to the surface. This is what makes air-conditioning possible, because the heat extracted from the train has somewhere to go.
I've used the old Met line trains with natural ventilation (vents and end windows), and busy air-conditioned rush-hour trains elsewhere in London and Europe. Air-conditoned is much nicer. Fully opening windows on a rush hour train? How long before someone loses an arm, or a head?
- Nigel, London, 21/10/2009 13:23
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Talk about negative comments - no big fan of BoJo and perfectly aware that his predecessor is responsible for most of these improvements, but hey, it's still happening and if it's BoJo that happens to stand there at the welcoming ceremonies, then so be it.
"We all no that it will be totally unreliable, hugely expensive and quietly pulled from service and forgotten about. - Thomas, London"
Hmmmm - it seems Thomas must be a world renowned rail engineer and mass transit expert!
- David, N10, 21/10/2009 13:16
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Air conditioned means it will be a sealed sweat-box, the opposite of what I would want. I would prefer opening windows and ventilation shafts running up to the surface from tunnels and stations (hot air rises). This would be greener, cheaper, but unfortunately not offer the same level of profit.
- Alan In Bow, London, 21/10/2009 12:15
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Well done Boris, under Ken this would have never happened!
Happy Ed?
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants, 21/10/2009 12:08
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Let's see how long before someone posts "Well done Boris, under Ken this would have never happened!"
- Ed, London, 21/10/2009 11:47
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Yes, let dehydration, body odour and farts become a thing of the past - all down to London Underground!
- Nowan King, London, 21/10/2009 11:23
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I wonder how warm the welcome will be when users find out that the new trains have far fewer seats than the existing A sock trains.
- Mike Constable, Islington, London, 21/10/2009 11:11
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We all no that it will be totally unreliable, hugely expensive and quietly pulled from service and forgotten about.
- Thomas, London, 21/10/2009 10:05
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