Case Studies

Advice & Consultancy Case Study

Research and recovery of internal knowledge relating to Ventilation Arrangements

TfL is investing heavily to address the issue of heat on the Tube. Getting heat out of the London Underground network is a huge engineering challenge. TfL has established a dedicated "Cooling the Tube" project team to provide solutions to prevent temperatures on deepest parts of the network rising to unacceptable levels.

The need to avoid increasing temperatures on the Underground system is actually the flipside of TfL’s success. Services are planned to increase by 25 per cent, and new trains, that can accelerate quicker, are on order. But moving more customers and more trains takes more energy, even when the best of modern technology is applied, and more energy creates more heat. And, controlling temperatures is harder than ever before, because the ground around the tunnels has heated up over the many years since they were built.

Prior to Cooling the Tube Programme there was a lack of historical data about tube temperatures and the amount of airflow generated by tunnel ventilation systems. This included the success of previous mitigation measures and mathematical models for evaluation purposes.

Fifth Dimension was appointed to prepare the historical and scientific data from the earliest days of the tube network. The project compiled information on atmospheric and temperature-related conditions on the tube since 1890, and past initiatives used for mitigation. Schemes included increasing the number of tunnel ventilation fans and draught relief shafts, plus experimental features such as ‘Ozonaire’, refrigeration and evaporative cooling. The findings were sourced from hundreds of library sources, records offices and LT Archives which has helped Cooling the Tube in developing strategies that will offer customers a more comfortable travelling environment.

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