Air cooling units are now in use at both Oxford Circus and Green Park during the summer months, with the former making use of a TfL-owned building above ground to pump in water and the latter drawing water via boreholes from a nearby aquifer. Fans, ventilation shafts and air cooling systems all combine to keep the Jubilee line on average 5C cooler than the Central line throughout the year.īut, for the most part, TfL is forced to fix the Tube’s overheating problem on a station-by-station basis. Similar systems are used on the Northern line, while the Jubilee line benefits from being built in the 1970s, meaning engineers were focussed on not creating another sweltering death tube.
For a larger version of the graphic below, click here (PDF). Only the Bakerloo line (30.91C in September 2016) has recorded a monthly average temperatue in excess of 30C during that time. It shouldn’t come as a surprise – the Central line routinely reaches average temperatures too hot for EU cows to handle: 30C (July and August 2013), 30.5C (July 2014) and 31.04C (August 2016). Last summer, Londoners took grim amusement when temperatures on the dreaded red line (35.5C) surpassed the EU limit at which it is legal to transport cows, sheep and pigs (30C). On a network of horrendously hot tunnels, the Central line consistently breaks records. And, you won’t be surprised to learn, cooling the Tube down is seriously complicated and expensive. But why, of all of London’s Tube lines, is the Central line so hot and hellish? Simply put, it’s old, it’s very deep underground and TfL hasn’t invested much money into cooling it down. And nowhere is it hotter than on the sweltering, stinking hellscape that is the Central line.
People take part in ‘No Trousers on The Tube Day’ (not in protest against the heat) on the London Underground in January 2017 JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images
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