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BBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- BBC News
What do people in Epping think of the town's migrant hotel?
For weeks now, there have been protests near the Bell Hotel in Epping, which houses single male asylum far this month they have largely been peaceful, but in July some descended into disorder. Riot police were on residential streets; helicopters were whirring over homes at night. Twenty-eight people have been arrested, with police officers injured and vehicles damaged. The protests started after an asylum seeker housed at the hotel was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He is in custody awaiting further court where Sir Winston Churchill was MP from 1924 to 1945, is at the end of London Underground's Central line. Its bustling High Street has bakeries, hair salons, cafes and on some of the protest days, it has been a ghost town - with many businesses shutting early. One local councillor described Epping as the epicentre of Britain's anti-migrant protests. What do locals make of it? "They shouldn't be there. They should be gone. "They are causing nothing but trouble in the town," said Debbie was pushing her grandson in a pram on a warm said the asylum seekers should be "kept in a camp until they are processed" and suggested a military base like MDP Wethersfield in north Essex - where hundreds are currently being housed - would be Ellis welcomed the protests."I think it should be happening, I've been to a couple. If we don't stand up for our town no-one else is going to," she said."They shouldn't be left in a population where there's little kids running round, shops where they go shoplifting," she added. Several people alleged asylum seekers have been shoplifting. One store manager who did not want to be named said stealing from their shop was an issue, but they had no idea if the culprits were asylum seekers or not. They did not feel thefts were worse in Epping compared to other crime up to June (the current figures) has remained broadly the same in Epping and Ongar over the past 18 months, with between 261 and 365 crimes reported a month. The figure was slightly higher in some months in 2022-23 according to Essex Police's crime statistics. 'Haven't felt unsafe' For Priyam Atter, out and about with her toddler, it was the protests she was concerned about."I've never had any issues with people who I can see are from that hotel. "I certainly haven't felt unsafe by those people, but I certainly have felt unsafe by the riots that happened in this area."I think it is a stain on Epping." Elsabe Coericius was out shopping. She said "if the hotel is the only place where they can stay they should be allowed".She is a Quaker and said: "I believe in peaceful protest. "I think everybody should be able to share their views and opinions."Epping Forest District Council has been seeking an injunction against the owner of the Bell Hotel to stop it being used to house asylum seekers. Ms Coericius described that move as "a disgrace". But others like Sara and Jan Russell, out for a brisk summer walk, supported the council's High Court action."I'm all for it. I've lived here for over 50 years now. We've never seen anything like this."It's not right, nobody likes it," said Jan Russell added: "It's about time these asylum seekers did just go. "We are such a small town - we can't really afford to have that sort of people walking up and down the street." She said she saw the asylum seekers "just dossing around" in the town. They had not been involved in the protests, but they supported said Sara Russell, not "when people are coming off the Central line from the other side of London and are just pretending to be from the local area". "There's a very small percentage of people who are protesters from Epping town," she said she had "nothing against the legal migrants" but when it came to those arriving by boat across the Channel, her answer was to "put them on Ascension island". Social media 'drums drumming' As she strolled past, another resident, Sue Rosso, heard what they were saying and disagreed."There is this major issue that we have in this country with lots of people coming to seek refuge. "Fundamentally, the hotels, whilst not an ideal option is - as I see it - the only temporary option," she the shoplifting accusations, Ms Rosso said: "There's a lot of drums drumming on the social media and a lot of fake news."In my view those incidents are not true."She said she felt the protests should be in Westminster, not Epping, as it was the government who was placing asylum seekers in the are strong views on the Bell Hotel in Epping and it appeared to be dividing opinion."It's turning neighbour against neighbour," Ms Rosso said. "This was a community based town and I hope it will be that again in the future." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mail
02-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The Tubes and London buses that are too hot for cattle: Britain swelters in heatwave as 35C Underground trains record temperatures that are above legal limit for transporting livestock
London is a sauna - and nowhere more so than on the sweltering, sweaty public transport network. Underground trains and buses whizz people on five million journeys every day apiece. On the Tube there are up to 543 trains running at peak time, with an average max capacity of 900 people, and thousands of buses carrying up to 90 people. So it's of little surprise that the passengers get cooked in the summer, particularly in the midst of the current heatwave. 'Sauna' is no exaggeration - a group of climate protesters rode the Central line in towels last week. But to find out just how hot it really on public transport, MailOnline took a trip on Tuesday in 30C heat - and came away both concerned and sweaty. Everywhere we went, temperatures exceeded 30C - the legal limit at which the UK Government 's Animal and Plant Health Agency says it is too hot to transport livestock. It makes you question who the real cattle is. Our trusty air thermometer - a nursery monitor shaped like a penguin - found buses were 3C hotter and Tube trains were up to 5C hotter above 30C. Experts have warned that these temperatures can make people ill - and are only set to rise. Setting off from the Mail's offices in Kensington, we boarded a bus bound for Notting Hill, where our monitor leapt up to 33C, even with the windows open and cool air being blown from vents over our heads. From there, we boarded the Central line - long regarded as one of London's warmest Tube routes - where our penguin friend recorded a temperature of 34C. It was a similar story on the Bakerloo from Oxford Circus: 34.2C, creeping towards 35, but coolest if you were lucky enough to be standing next to the connecting doors with their windows flung open. As we transferred from line to line, the temperature did take a much-welcomed dip to around 33C within the stations. In Oxford Circus, we found a gigantic fan behind a mesh grate - and cooled ourselves down to around 31C for a few precious seconds. But it was as we boarded the Victoria line - an up-and-coming new entry in the hellish heat rankings - that we really began to sweat, with the temperature hitting 35.1C. These three lines are all 'deep-level' Tube lines, running up to 100ft below ground. On our return leg to Kensington, we boarded the Circle line - one of the 'sub-surface' lines that goes no more than 30ft underground and has air-conditioning. Even then, our penguin friend recorded no lower than 32C. Back in the office with water to hand we were relatively lucky. We travelled at around 12pm, before the peak of the afternoon, when foot traffic tends to be light. It would be even hotter if we had been packed like sardines on a rush hour train at 5pm. But even 30C can be problematic for people travelling on public transport when the weather is stiflingly hot. A rapid analysis of the current heatwave conducted last month found almost 600 people could die in the current hot spell. Lewis Halsey, a professor of health sciences at the University of Roehampton, previously told MailOnline that temperatures above 30C can be 'difficult' for the body to bear, particularly in humid conditions such as in packed Tube trains. 'Over 30 degrees – we all know its not the most pleasant temperature but it's not going to kill us off unless we're incredibly frail,' he said. 'But if it gets humid, which of course it can get it London, temperatures above 30C can get difficult for the body to "dump" heat as quickly as we're taking it on. 'If the body can't lose heat as quickly as it's taking it on, you're going to get a net gain of heat into the body and body temperature will rise. 'And if body temperature rises too much then you've had it.' In high humidity conditions and at around 40C, he added grimly, the most vulnerable could 'keel over'. And the chances of that happening are only set to increase. In around 1900, the temperature inside Tube tunnels was around 14C. Underground bosses were so proud of its pleasant climate that a 1926 poster boasted: 'The Underground's the only spot for comfort when the days are hot. It is cooler below.' Before hopping on a bus from Kensington to Notting Hill, we recorded an outside temperature of just over 30C These days the closest measure is taken on platforms: across 2013, it was an average of 22C across all Tube lines. In the last decade, it has risen two degrees to 24C. On the stifling Victoria line, temperatures have risen by six degrees from 22C to 28C between 2013 and 2024, likely as TfL bosses have increased the frequency of trains. 'It is cooler below' wouldn't hold up now. The Met Office definition of a UK heatwave is three consecutive days of temperatures above 28C. On some Tube lines, commuters are living through heatwaves every time they hop on board in the summer. The Tube is hottest on Bakerloo, Central and Victoria line platforms - which are 'deep-level' Tube lines as much as 100ft below ground, lower than 'sub-surface' lines such as the District and Circle lines which sit around 30ft below ground. On the Victoria line, the only Tube route to run completely underground save for its Tottenham depot, temperatures sat at a sizzling 30.4C last summer - warmer than Spanish party island Ibiza at the same time of year. But why is the Underground so hot - and what can be done? In short: a few reasons, largely owed to its age and design; and not a lot. TfL says it is on a mission to cool the Tube down - and has been for decades. But it has a Sisyphean struggle on its hands as temperatures continue to rise year-on-year and it contends with the fact it can't simply rip out a 100-year-old design and start again. 'As I've often said, with the various quirks of the Underground: a Victorian built it, and now we're stuck with it,' Jago Hazzard, a pseudonymous YouTuber sharing the history of London transport with a quarter of a million subscribers, tells MailOnline. '(The Underground) is a deep, narrow tube surrounded by clay. There are so many people, there's the friction of the brakes, the various sorts of electrical machinery on the trains themselves, a whole lot of different reasons that all come together. 'The deep-level Tube lines are particularly afflicted because there's so much clay on top of them and so little space around the trains for air to circulate.' There are a few reasons that Tube bosses have acknowledged for the endless encroachment of heat, and some additional theories posited by experts. Excluding the sweaty passengers, Underground trains give off a lot of heat - from the motors and the auxiliary lighting systems to the brakes, even following the switch to regenerative brakes that absorb energy that would otherwise be lost as heat. Then there are the reams and reams of thick electrical cables you can see bolted to the walls of Underground tunnels responsible for powering the signals. Much of the heat is absorbed by the tunnels and would once have been absorbed by the London clay - the malleable but highly stable soil north of the Thames that was valued by Tube engineers because it was easy to tunnel into. But studies have suggested the clay has now warmed to the point it can no longer effectively absorb the waste heat from trains. And with nowhere else to go the heat simply sticks around in the tunnels, from where it is shoved onto the platforms by trains ploughing through at up to 60mph. Calvin Barrows, a retired civil engineer, has another theory: that of 'solar gain', the heat absorbed by Tube trains when they are exposed to heat from the sun, much like your car when left in the sun on a hot day. This, in effect, turns the trains into 'mobile storage heaters', he says, that then radiate and push heat into the tunnels. Central line trains are painted with solar reflective coatings and films on their roofs and windows, but Mr Barrows - a one-time long-suffering Central line commuter - maintains that more could be done, such as storing trains in covered areas. 'It's not the passengers - it's only when it comes out on the surface that the trains heat up,' he said. 'The trains gain their heat on the surface and carry that into the tunnels. Air temperature in the sun and the shade are exactly the same - but stand in the sun and you become warm because you're being solar radiated.' Dr Gary Fuller, a senior lecturer in air quality measurement at Imperial College London, believes smog may also play a role, trapping heat. said: 'Bad air pollution often adds to the direct impacts of heat. Air pollutants can react together in the strong sunlight and heat to form summertime smog. 'This is the type of air pollution that plagued cities like Los Angeles for the second half of the 20th century.' London's older Tube lines were also built before ventilation ever had to be considered in the way it must be now - some of them more than 100 years ago. And now the network is stuck with antiquated designs about which little can be done without tearing the entire city apart. Opening up the ground to add new vents to the Central line, for example, would be almost impossible. Newer trains are air conditioned: the Elizabeth Line and London Overground were designed with air-con on board, and new-build stations on the 'Lizzy line' were designed from the ground-up to be as cool as possible. The Circle, Hammersmith & City, District and Metropolitan lines received air-con as part of an upgrade programme a decade ago. Around 40 per cent of the Tube network is now air-conditioned - but that leaves 60 per cent still sweating. But a question remains over whether the New Tube for London trains, which will bring air-con to the Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines, will cool passengers at the expense of cooking the tunnels and platforms even more. Aircon systems need to be able to spew out the hot air that is being diverted away from the carriages, adding more heat to those already toasty tunnels. The first NTfL trains are expected to enter service on the Piccadilly line next year. 'Putting air conditioning on the trains only solves the problem inside the train,' adds Calvin Barrows. 'But the thing that's making the tunnels hottest is the outside of the train. Air conditioning just sends more heat out.' There is also another issue that Industrial Era London did not have to consider: between higher-density construction and climate change, the capital is heating up. Met Office data suggests 30-year average temperatures for July at its Hampstead weather station just north of Camden have risen 1.4C since the 1960s. But the city centre is even warmer thanks to the 'urban heat island' effect seen in city centres across the world where a lack of vegetation, dense buildings and dark surfaces like roads create the perfect environment for heat to take hold. On average, the centre of London is 4.5C hotter than its less built-up areas, according to a 2023 study by consultancy Arup using modelling from the University of Reading. 'In Britain, we've been so used to it being cold and wet that rising temperatures have rather taken us by surprise,' adds Jago Hazzard. 'These issues were just things that, circa 1900s, they just didn't even consider. What TfL are having to do now is see what they can do within the constraints of the infrastructure they've got. 'Unless you're going to rebuild stations at a cost of billions, you very much have to work with what you've got.' TfL's crack team of engineers have been working to find practical solutions to cooling the Tube for more than two decades - and as yet, nobody has a silver bullet. In 2003, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone offered a £100,000 prize for anyone who could present a practical idea. It was never awarded, reported the BBC, which also noted that passengers withstood temperatures of an almost nostalgic 30C. Instead, TfL is taking a piecemeal approach, using a multitude of methods and experiments to find ways of cooling platforms, venting tunnels and reducing the amount of heat the trains themselves give off. It's not uncommon to encounter enormous industrial-sized fans, hidden behind safety meshes, in the summer months. On the Victoria line, TfL says it has doubled the capacity of its 13 ventilation shafts. And in 2015, a disused lift-shaft at St Paul's station was retrofitted with an enormous fan circulating 16 litres of cold water a second around pipes in the ventilation system - cooling air by up to 7C on the eastbound Central line platform. In 2022, it trialled cooling panel systems that use fans to circulate air cooled by pipes filed with cold water at a disused platform in Holborn station. The trial brought temperatures down between 10 and 15C around the panel. Last year, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a written answer to London Assembly member Hina Bokhari that they would be tested at Knightsbridge and could be rolled out at Green Park, Holborn, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. But rolling out initiatives like these are expensive, and TfL only has so much to spend on these projects, often seeking external funding for trials like that at Holborn. But there's no getting around the fact that temperatures above ground are continuing to climb, seemingly unabated - and the Tube will continue to cook, at TfL's expense. The 40C July 2022 heatwave saw Tube travel drop by 29 per cent across two days - costing it millions in lost fare revenue. Tracks buckled and overhead cables sagged in the heat - issues likely to rear their head again in future. Carl Eddleston, TfL's director of network operations, says the transport body has a 'comprehensive hot weather plan in place' to keep the network going, and encourages Londoners to carry water and look out for one another. But that could prove more difficult as the years roll by: Met Office research suggests that temperatures in excess of 35C could happen every other year by the year 2100 - rather than once every five years or so. Even as it invests in solar energy, as it announced last week, and plants wildflowers to fight climate change, the uncomfortable truth is that the Tube will almost likely never be completely cool. 'We're going to kill people,' Calvin Barrows warns. 'If you're in 40 degree heat and the train gets stalled in a tunnel, you will come out in a bad way, if you come out at all.' 'It's a long-term thing - there is no simple solution,' concludes Jago Hazzard. 'It's very much a case of what works, what we can install in the existing infrastructure. I fear, unless stations can be rebuilt, it is going to continue to be a problem, at least in the short term.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The hottest trend of the summer? Mini fans
Tiny Nineties shades? Woven wicker clutches? Those mildly menacing Labubu charms that glare out from the handle of your bag, clenching their pointy plastic teeth? Forget them. From the fields of Glastonbury to the stands at Royal Ascot to the subterranean inferno of the Central line, there's one standout accessory that has taken this summer by storm. I'm referring, of course, to the humble battery-powered portable fan, the little device that has become ubiquitous over the past month or so, as sweaty Brits try desperately to deal with high temperatures that our infrastructure just wasn't built to withstand. It's small enough to stash in a tote as you rush out of the house in the morning, and it emits the sort of weirdly comforting white noise that helps you ascend to another level of zen during your commute. You'll see these handy bits of tech in train carriages, at office desks and in pub gardens, as their devotees bask in the temporary respite offered by a slightly cooler blast of air, soothing their tomato-red faces and dispersing some of the perspiration that's started to take up residence on their upper lip. It doesn't hurt, either, that the wind machine effect tends to give long hair a bit of a zhush, too, so you can briefly pretend you're in a Mariah Carey video when you're in fact standing at a bus stop looking like a wilted houseplant. The handheld fan is not a new invention. When I cast my mind back to primary school, I can remember a craze for colourful versions with soft plastic blades made from balloon-like material (they could still cause a bit of pain if you held them too close to your skin, which, being primary school kids, we obviously did; we also spoke into them to 'hilariously' make our little voices sound robotic). But the 2025 iteration is a much more sophisticated beast. Unlike the ones you might recall from childhood, the miniature fan of the moment tends to have a case around the blades, to prevent your hair or clothes getting tangled up. Some of them are foldable, so you can fit them into the tiniest handbag or pocket. Some can be plugged into your phone's charging socket. And some have built-in flashlights, in case you want to add an element of disco to your Tube journey. Inevitably, they're available in a whole range of colourways, and if you want to amp up the twee factor, you can invest in a fan with cutesy animal ears and a smiling face emblazoned on the centre of its motor. Pandas, cats, frogs – just name the tiny creature and you'll be able to find some form of equally tiny ventilation device fashioned in its image. The true tech pioneers, though, seem to be opting for wearable fans that rest on your neck, gently circulating air around your face; the aesthetic is somewhere between off-duty athlete and televangelist shouting into a headset. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when the mini-fan became such a summer must-have. But over the past half decade or so, their popularity seems to have grown and grown. New research from Material Focus, the non-profit group that campaigns for better recycling for waste electrical and electronic equipment (a category also known by the slightly unfortunate acronym Weee) has found that British people have bought around 7.1 million mini fans over the last 12 months. Google searches for the products, meanwhile, were up by 16 per cent in May compared to the same period last year. British people have bought around 7.1 million mini fans over the last 12 months And it can hardly be a coincidence that they've become increasingly ubiquitous as our summers have got hotter, for longer. The Met Office recently pointed out a 'clear upward trend' in the number of days in June with temperatures hitting above 30C, for instance, and also published a study last month revealing that the chances of UK temperatures exceeding 40C are 'accelerating at pace'. Our public spaces and transport systems just weren't made to account for such high temperatures, so it's no wonder that we're trying to make the experience of, well, merely existing during summertime slightly less swampy. There is a slightly bleak irony, though, in the fact that we're stuck attempting to deal with our changing climate by… buying into products that aren't necessarily all that great for the planet. Portable fans fall under the umbrella of 'fast tech', cheap, even novelty devices that are often tough to repair and tend to get chucked in the bin at the end of the season. Think of it as the tech world's equivalent of fast fashion. Material Focus has estimated that around 3.5 million fans have been discarded or forgotten over the past year. And because these products often feature plastics and electronic components, they can be especially difficult to properly recycle. When you take into account that many of the novelty designs are being sold on massive online platforms that are notoriously unfussed about the environmental impact of their supply chain and delivery process, they don't seem quite so cool. It's all worth bearing in mind when you find your eyes inexorably drawn to the candy-coloured fan with the endearingly cute animal ears during your next unbearably sticky train journey. The tiny novelty fan might be alluring, sure, but do you really need one that matches your outfit when you already have a few knocking around in your junk drawer at home?
BBC News
23-06-2025
- BBC News
Underground train graffiti 'like Gotham City', says Essex MP
An MP has compared the graffiti on his London commute to like a scene from a Batman Neil Hudson, Conservative MP for Epping Forest in Essex, said he has noticed the inside of the carriages on the Underground's Central Line getting "worse and worse"."It feels like you're in the middle of a Batman movie, you're in a train in Gotham City rather than Epping Forest," he for London (TfL) said it was cleaning more than 2,000 tags, which are spray-painted signatures, a week from trains on the Central Line. Gotham City is a fictional setting for Batman films, often depicted as a dangerous environment where crime runs amok. TfL added it could not afford to take trains out of service at peak times, but Hudson said he wanted more of a focus on deterring the said people felt unsafe when anti-social behaviour was left unchallenged, and that someone needed to step up."There's no CCTV, there's no stickers or signs saying: 'if you do this, you will be prosecuted'," he said."It's a matter of priorities as well. The mayor of London spent over £6m on rebranding of the London Overground when actually commuters on a day-to-day basis are saying, 'look, we want on-time trains, we want clean trains, we want safe trains, and we want trains without graffiti on them'." TfL said it was also removing 2,000 tags a week "24/7" on the Bakerloo line of the Underground."We have deployed an accelerated cleaning programme in response to the specific increase in graffiti," a spokesperson said. "We previously withdrew trains from service as soon as they had been vandalised, but with reduced availability due to ageing trains this isn't always possible without impacting services. "This is why we are working to secure investment in the Tube network, to replace and upgrade trains and ensure we can deliver the world-class transport network that Londoners and visitors deserve and expect." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Telegraph
20-06-2025
- Climate
- Telegraph
Are London commuters treated worse than cattle in hot weather? I took the Tube to find out
Whether you're commuting to work or simply travelling around London, on even a relatively mild summer's day it's practically a guarantee that you'll arrive at your destination drenched in sweat. The hottest temperature ever recorded on London's Tube is a matter of some debate. During the 2006 heatwave, unsubstantiated reports of 47C made headlines. During the 2022 heatwave, Transport for London (TfL) advised customers to only travel if absolutely necessary, and reporters recorded temperatures over 40C on the Tube. According to TfL's own stats, the highest temperature recorded in 2024 was a comparatively cool 31.1C on the Victoria line in August. Yet, for context, regulations prohibit the moving of farm animals if temperatures exceed 30C. Truly, today's commuters are treated worse than cattle. But just how bad can it get? With the mercury already at 26C outside, and armed with a Tommee Tippee baby room thermometer, I jumped on the Tube just after the morning rush hour in central London to find out. Which is the hottest Tube line? Starting at Tottenham Court Road at 9.30am, I hopped straight on the Central line to Oxford Circus. It is infamous amongst Londoners for being the stickiest of all the Underground's lines, and according to TfL's data in 2024 it was in fact only the second hottest (behind the Victoria line), with stations reaching a peak of 30.6C. On the train, my thermometer beat this comfortably. Central line: 31.7C From Oxford Circus, I raced up to Warren Street on the TfL's 'official' hottest route: the Victoria line. It's worth emphasising that TfL only records temperatures at stations, rather than the trains themselves, with highs of 31.1C recorded. My on-train reading was much warmer. Victoria line: 33.6C The Northern line is considered one of the Underground's 'Deep' lines (Hampstead lies 58.5m below ground level) so consequently ventilation isn't always great. My journey avoided plumbing those depths while spiriting me from Warren Street back to Tottenham Court Road, but it was still hot, hot, hot. Northern line: 32.4C From the baking to the merely simmering, the journey from Tottenham Court Road to Bond Street via London's newest stretch of underground railway, the Elizabeth line, really shows the difference that air conditioning can make. Elizabeth line: 25.8C By the time I boarded the Jubilee line from Bond Street to Westminster I was starting to get used to the heat. Jubilee line trains are some of the smallest physically so there is very little room for ventilation or air conditioning units to be installed. Jubilee line: 31.3C The modern 'walk-through' District and Circle lines, like the Elizabeth line, are blessed with air conditioning. However, as they are only partially overground, they suffer from 'solar gain' where the trains and tracks heat up due to the sun when it's hot outside. On my journey from Westminster to Embankment, I could still feel the heat. District line: 30.4C Bakerloo line trains date back to 1972 and are therefore the oldest rolling stock still in active service on any railway line in Britain. I feared temperatures would be excessive, especially when I saw the swathe of newspapers placed over the ventilation within my carriage, but it turned out the Bakerloo was relatively cool. Bakerloo line: 30.9C With new air-conditioned trains coming into service on the Piccadilly line from the end of 2025, it should rapidly cool down in the coming years. Just as well, as my journey from Piccadilly Circus to Green Park saw me recording the hottest temperatures on my Tube odyssey. Piccadilly line: 34.2C The average temperature of my morning's travel was 31.3C, which, given that I was travelling before midday, is alarmingly hot. It's certainly warm enough for TfL to activate its hot weather plan: warnings that passengers should carry a bottle of water at all times could be heard frequently on my journey. Why does the Tube get so hot? A report by Rail Engineering in 2007 found that the vast majority of the heat is caused by the friction of the trains braking on the tracks. During the 2022 heatwave, trains were ordered to run more slowly to mitigate the release of braking heat. Once the underground gets hot, it stays hot. The clay into which the underground tunnels were dug acts as a heat sink, absorbing around 80 per cent of the heat generated. Scientists have estimated that when the tunnels were first dug, that clay would have been about 14C, and it is now 19-26C. Ventilation systems on the older and deeper lines such as the Piccadilly and Bakerloo were not designed to cope with the levels of heat produced by modern trains, so only around 10 per cent of heat is vented out of the network. The size of the tunnels on the London Underground are the second smallest of any underground railways in the world (only the Glasgow Subway has smaller tunnels) making it difficult and expensive to fit extra ventilation and air conditioning systems into them. What is TfL doing to cool down the Tube? There are a variety of schemes underway to help reduce temperatures underground, from air cooling units to massive chillers at some stations. Groundwater beneath Victoria station has been used for cooling; Green Park features an underground aquifer which helps cool it. Ventilation capacity and new fans are also being installed. Some Tube trains – including the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Elizabeth line – now feature air-conditioning within their carriages. The Piccadilly line will join this list when its new trains enter service from the end of 2025. The Bakerloo, Waterloo and City, and Central lines will be next in line, though no firm timeline has been announced. A TfL spokesperson told The Telegraph that despite 2019 reports of new air-conditioned trains being unveiled by 2030, funding was never secured and it was unlikely the trains would be air conditioned within the next 20 years, with Bakerloo line trains being given priority before then. Despite the Victoria line being the hottest on the underground last year (with temperatures averaging 30C between June and October) there are no plans to upgrade trains on the Victoria, Northern or Jubilee lines. How to stay safe when travelling in hot weather Always carry water to avoid dehydration. During hot weather, you can lose 1.5 to 2 litres of water an hour through sweat. 'If you don't replace these fluids, your blood thickens and your heart has to work harder to maintain your blood pressure and oxygen levels,' warns Dileep Lobo, a professor of gastrointestinal surgery at University of Nottingham, who researches fluid and electrolyte balance. According to nutritional therapist Madeleine Shaw, it could also be worth adding an electrolyte sachet to your water before you travel: 'This is a great way to start the day and really important on hot sweaty days,' she says. TfL regularly advices passengers to get off the train if they feel dizzy or unwell, as it is easier for paramedics to reach people on platforms than on the trains themselves. Carl Eddleston, TfL's Director of Streets & Network Operations, said: 'With continuous hot weather forecast over the coming days, we are encouraging customers to carry water with them when they travel. 'We have a comprehensive hot weather plan in place to protect the network's infrastructure with resources on standby to help respond to the impact and to keep services running. 'Please look out for each other while travelling. For the latest information on how TfL services are operating, customers should use TfL's real-time travel tools, including status updates, Journey Planner and TfL Go.'
