According to today's WSJ, the summer temperatures in the Tube are getting out of hand. Heat levels in the stations and on the trains have been building ever since they opened, and now "regularly exceed 30 degrees C or 86 F, the legal limit for transporting cattle, pigs and sheep in the UK."
And ironically, when they put AC on the train cars, it ends up heating up the stations. Train drivers are threatening to possibly strike when temps get up around 96 F.
Should we now call the Tube trains “Cattle cars?” Maybe “Cattle Carriages” is a more dignified term to refer to them for those of us on the moooove.
The Tube first went into service in the 1800's, so air conditioning the underground stations seems not to have been a priority.
So you have to leave your pet pig at home because it's too hot to take on the tube?
A lot of the infrastructure of the country is basically Victorian and well overdue a major overhaul. Unfortunately it’s far easier to build things from scratch than to redo them. That’s why Spain now has better roads and trains than we do. Even 30 or 40 years ago they had very poor infrastructure and dangerous roads but with money from the EU it’s all nice and modern now.
Helen, I actually love the older train cars on the tube that were there some years ago. I don’t know if any remain. They gave us Americans a feeling of riding on a historic train carriage with the clickety-clack sound that went along with that.
Same with the red double-decker buses that were everywhere in London once upon a time…
Kenko: the good news is that the red double decker buses still run! I take one almost every day. There are even buses running (I see them on route 211) modeled after the old Routemasters from the late ‘50s, with that curved staircase in the very back of the bus.
As for the Tube… there are air conditioned trains on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines, which luckily for tourists serve some of the most popular destinations in London. And many stations are not enclosed, so there is a breeze, which helps on a hot day.
That said, OMG can it get nasty down there when you’re on a car with no A/C and there are service disruptions. Gah! Just brutal. Just another reason I take the bus. :-)
You can still take a routemaster bus daily on the non TfL T15 route from Charing Cross to the Tower of London.
The first and last workings of the day extend from Charing Cross to Waterloo.
And on Christmas Day routemasters run the only public transport in London (apart from National Express) - the free route 430 from Putney to Roehampton.
This is normally a TfL route which extends the rest of the year into central London.
lovely and warm down on the tube on a cold and rainy or snowy day
There is a league table somewhere for heat on the various lines. Generally the Sub surface lines are the best. They aren't deep, and have better ventilation as they were originally built for steam trains.
The Underground used to advertise itself as the place to be cool in the summer.
The Victoria Line is usually the hottest, and that was only built in the 1960s / early 70s. Mind you it was built a bit on the cheap & that probably included the ventilation system especially considering how intense the service now is - 36 trains per hour at peak.
There is a league table somewhere for heat on the various lines.
Funny you should mention that, I did some Googling the other day when this topic came up and I was curious as to what the hottest line was. I'll link to the Evening Standard article below -
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/hottest-tube-line-london-temperature-b1235650.html
I was surprised it was the Victoria Line. My experience of really unbearably hot trains at rush hour has been on the Central Line. I used to travel on the Victoria Line every day and I guess it was hot at times, but my worst experience is definitely on a Central Line train.
I haven't been on a tube train for a few months. The Overground trains I've taken recently in the hot weather have been air conditioned down to quite chill. Buses are still a bit of a lottery on a hot day. All buses have cooling of some sort, but some are better airconditioned than others. I've needed the little opening window to get some cool air recently. You only get that between stops if the bus gets up to speed too.
Train drivers are threatening to possibly strike when temps get up around 96 F.
Well there's a surprise.
Well, you've got to give people half decent conditions when they're at their work here by law. They've had problems with exposing drivers to the noise levels too. Some sections of line are way above what people should be exposed to all day in terms of noise.
Oh come on Gerry, Tube drivers strike at the drop of a hat. If conditions are so bad then let's automate the network, it can be done.
It hit 86 degrees (Fahrenheit) in London yesterday. I took the Piccadilly line from the airport.
Fortunately, it wasn't very crowded and I sat next to the door to get some breeze when the train stopped and the doors opened. I saw a few people with small, handheld fans,
Simply another reason I prefer traveling in the Fall. Weather. Give me a cool cloudy grey day. 30 plus years in LA sunshine bores me.
If conditions are so bad then let's automate the network, it can be done.
No it can't.
Totally-crewless trains are only permitted if you have continuous walkways throughout the tunnels, which the London Underground doesn't have and which it would be too expensive to install.
permitted if you have continuous walkways throughout the tunnels,
I am not sure what to make of the that term. Is there a 'translation' for USA English?
continuous means uninterrupted. Walkway means a platform at door level which in an emergency the passengers on the unstaffed train could open the doors and safely evacuate the train onto the walkway and walk (continuously without getting down to the rails which are electric and dangerous to life) safely to the nearer station.
