Air Conditioned Tube Carriages "unveiled"

Later on today at Euston, Boris Johnson will launch some air conditioned carriages on the London Underground. Well they won't actually be working (not like we need them in late September anyway) and we won't be getting them for a few more years either. And they're not on all lines. Just the Metropolitan Line from 2010 and the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City Line trains from 2011.


I know that there are supposedly brilliant reasons as to why it's difficult to have air conditioning on the Tube, and that in spite of six figure rewards and competitions and searches for an Operations Manager to cool the Tube at TfL, I still can't understand why we haven't got it on all lines now & not by 2011 on just a few lines.

When I was in New York I sat in some unbelievably cool carriages on their subway, and yes, I know ours is older, but it's not that much older. Even in the early part of the 20th century New York's subway had fans in the carriages (see photos from my New York Transit Museum trip below)




I seriously don't remember seeing any fans in old carriages in our London Transport Museum. Did we ever have them? Or was there some sort of health & safety reason for us not having them?

Oh well, look forward to the carriages when we eventually get them in three years time.

Update - For those who like such things a mock up of the new trains will be on display at Euston Square Gardens for everyone to view from Saturday 26 September to Thursday 2 October. "Passengers will benefit from air conditioning, walk-through carriages, CCTV coverage in each carriage and improved accessibility." See the press release from the GLA for more & Londonist have got some picture of Boris "admiring the spacious interiors of the new carriages".