London Underground (LU) has revealed a number of new and improved measures to help cool the Tube network this summer. Industrial-sized fans will be used to improve air-flow and an award-winning ground water cooling scheme will keep temperatures lower for passengers at Victoria.

In the long-term there are plans for passengers to benefit from air-conditioned trains on the Circle, District, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines; with the first of these services up and running in 2010. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'Supplying new fans and innovative measures such as the ground-water cooling system at Victoria are welcome weapons in our fight to keep passengers fresh. Cooling the Tube does, though, remain a major challenge, especially on the deeper lines such as the Northern and Piccadilly, where we will continue to strive for a solution to the problem.”

The Tube is the oldest metro system in the world and the vast majority of the network was built long before air conditioning was invented. Tunnels were designed and built with only enough space for trains. This means that in the deep-level Tubes there is very little space for air-conditioning units on trains and nowhere to release the heat. It is one of the many challenges being addressed by the Underground's Cool the Tube project team, reveals the entity’s press release.