Air conditioning arrives on the London Tube

Anyone who has been on the Tube in the Summer has asked the same question–where is the AC?

London isn’t normally that hot, so AC has always been seen as a bit of a luxury. But after a few Summers of really disgusting hot weather, the folks in the Underground caved in and decided it was time for an air conditioned Tube car.

It will still be a number of years before we see them on all lines, and some lines will not get these new cars as they won’t fit in the tunnels.

Air conditioning

The new trains will be the first on the Underground to have air conditioning. This is possible because the subsurface lines run just below street level in large well ventilated tunnels built for steam trains, so heat from the air conditioning can escape. On the deep Tube lines this isn’t possible because of their depth and smaller tunnel size, so we’re exploring other ways of cooling them.