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Old June 11th 06, 07:44 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Mark W Mark W is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jun 2006
Posts: 7
Default Overheating on the Tube


Jonathan Morris wrote:

Neil Williams wrote:
...which would instead cause similar crowds in stations or just
outside.

It wouldn't work, which is probably why it hasn't been done.


Why can't we air condition the stations at least? These can be just as
unbearable, and it can't be TOO difficult to do. Expensive, yes, but a
decent system could clean and filter the air too.

I know the deep level stations have the problem of heat extraction, but
if you can sort out the stations then it must help overall passenger
comfort. Else have part of a train that collects the extracted heat,
which is then vented at a station?

Jonathan


"Might" be feasible on a small station, but a place like Oxford Circus
has a total of 4 2/3 miles* of passageway (inc non public). Now look at
the air con plants at your place of work and consider where you'd put
one big enough to make a difference round OXO C
, or any other decent sized central London station. And as for Bank ...

The trains have a similar problem - any aircon plant big enough to deal
with 100 people per carriage is going to be too big to fit under the
floor or seats (scale up a four person car plant ...). And you have to
carry the heat out of the tunnel, not dump it in so you would need one
hell of a heat sink - with the same space constraint problem, as well
as a reliable system of dumping the heat when in the open and not in
the tunnel - and thats without the problem of the Victoria Line where
the trains only surface when in the depot...

The other issue is cost / benefit. After all do you really want to pay
for all this expensive engineering when the number of days the tube is
really unbearable is in finger counting territory in a typical year ?