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| Re: London's five-year plan (8425) | |||
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Re: London's five-year plan |
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Posted by Fytton on Tue Oct 12 08:41:47 2004, in response to Re: London's five-year plan, posted by MATHA531 on Tue Oct 12 06:15:48 2004. Owing to global warming, the London tube trains *have* been intolerably hot in recent summers (especially summer 2003 when temperatures topped 100F in England for the first time ever). Free bottled water has been made available at key central London tube stations.The trains on the London deep tube lines are much smaller (lower and narrower) than IRT trains. Tall people can't even stand up straight if they are right inside the doors. There is a real problem in finding room to fit in a/c equipment without sacrificing passenger space. Ken Livingstone actually announced a competition a few months ago for suggestions on how to achieve a/c on the tube - over 3,000 suggestions were received, of which a small number are being investigated seriously. The next generation of trains for the subsurface lines, due in service around 2010, will definitely have air-cooling, as the space limitations are not so serious in these larger trains. As MATHA531 pointed out, there is also the problem of what to do with the heat after it has been pumped out of the trains. The deep tube tunnels are small-bore (which is why the trains are so small, of course!) and the only way the excess heat could leave these constricted tunnels is via the stations, which in turn would become intolerably hot, and require powerful a/c too. All in all, the additional energy consumption would be serious and form a significant "minus" to set agaist the gain made by deterring car traffic in central London by the congestion charge. |
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