A Labour MP has issued a direct appeal to Sir Sadiq Khan to accelerate the rollout of air conditioning on the London Underground as the capital sweltered through its hottest June day on record, with temperatures reaching 36°C on Friday.
Labour MP's Plea Amid Sweltering Conditions
Uma Kumaran, Labour MP for Stratford and Bow, shared a video clip to highlight the baking conditions on London's public transport. "I'm on the DLR. I'm very, very grateful for the breeze because London is absolutely cooking right now," she said. "It feels like a furnace outside. The train has been absolutely sweltering." She added: "I've also been on the Central line today so I know that not all trains have that breeze and definitely they don't have air con. Mayor of London, this is asking you, please put air con on the train."
Delays in New Rolling Stock
The mayor was urged to address delays in new rolling stock with air conditioning for the Piccadilly line. The first of 94 new Piccadilly trains had originally been expected to enter service late last year, bringing air conditioning for the first time on a deep Tube line. However, this was first postponed to the second half of this year and is now expected between December and June next year. Similarly, the rollout of 54 new trains with air conditioning on the DLR started last autumn but was halted after one train stopped past its intended stopping point.
The delays mean that no new trains with air conditioning have been introduced on the Underground for nine years. Currently, there are 192 air-conditioned Tube trains out of 620, covering 40% of the network. Lines with air conditioning include the Circle, Hammersmith & City, District, and Metropolitan, as well as the Elizabeth line, Overground, Northern City, Thameslink, and trams. Lines without air conditioning are the Central, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Victoria, Waterloo & City, Piccadilly, and Northern.
Political Reactions
Conservative London Assembly Member Thomas Turrell said: "Londoners could have been enjoying air-conditioned Piccadilly and DLR trains this week, but instead they are sweating to death because the Mayor has failed in this basic responsibility. If by next summer we are still in this position, the Mayor will have undoubtedly failed Londoners in his mission to keep them safe and comfortable on public transport."
Caroline Russell, Leader of the Green Group on the London Assembly, stressed: "We need air conditioning on every Tube and train to keep passengers and staff safe during periods of extreme heat." Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Olly Glover MP said: "Sadiq Khan must urgently accelerate the rollout of air-conditioning across the network and look to our European neighbours with similar transport networks, such as Madrid, who have experience of this."
Station Cooling Issues
Londoners are also enduring sweltering conditions at Tube stations, with cooling equipment unable to cope with heatwaves. More than a decade ago, systems were upgraded at Oxford Circus with chiller units to blow out cool air, and cold water from a borehole was piped to reduce temperatures at Green Park. However, the cooling element failed at Oxford Circus in 2017, with a similar situation at Green Park. Fans are installed in some stations to reduce temperatures.
Transport for London (TfL) said it was prioritising conditions for passengers on trains and that the "short-term and stop-start" nature of funding over recent years had meant taking "difficult decisions" and "carefully prioritising" investment. Nick Dent, TfL's director of customer operations, stressed: "We're working to ensure our transport services remain resilient in the face of more extreme and frequent hot weather events. We are investing millions as part of our continuous work to improve the network, which includes introducing new trains to meet growing customer numbers whilst providing more comfortable journeys." TfL says the delay to the new Piccadilly trains was due to "the complexity of introducing entirely new trains onto ageing infrastructure," with some parts of the line some 120 years old.
