How to Keep Subways and Trains Cool in an Ever Hotter World

TfL, to its credit, has made many efforts over the years to tackle the issue of hot tunnels, including Attaching cooling panels to tunnel walls. The panels, which circulate water to remove heat from the air, were set up in a trial in 2022, although they are not currently in use. Paul argues that such a system can be prohibitively expensive.

Hasan Hemida of the University of Birmingham said Paul’s water-cooling technology is a “good idea”, although it remains to be seen how much heat it can remove from a real-life, busy tube station.

Some railroads push the boundaries of our ability to cool things down, Hemida said. He gave the example of super-high-speed trains, say, 400 kilometers per hour. They push high-velocity air out of their path, which means air pressure around the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment on the roof of those trains. can be significantly reduced. “Then, you can’t suck air into the HVAC system,” he says. Ultimately, it may cause the air conditioning unit to fail. “I have been contacted by colleagues from China, and they want to find a solution to this problem,” added Hemida.

However, more and more train operators are adopting air-conditioning systems as standard. London still has air conditioning, as does the relatively new Elizabethan Line. And a spokesperson for Skoda Transport, which has recently gone air-conditioned Metro trains in the capital of BulgariaSaid: “Generally, every car we produce now is equipped with AC.” Sharon Hedges, senior engagement manager at Transport Focus, an industry watchdog, added: “As people think about procuring new rolling stock, things like this need to be top of mind now.”

Heatwaves in Britain are a thing. What about the Egyptian desert? German technology company Siemens is supplying Egypt with a new set of high-speed trains that can travel at a speed of 230 kilometers per hour. The firm’s Velaro trains are used in many places around Europe, but for Egypt, Siemens has really put them through their paces. Last summer, the company took a train to a test center in Austria and exposed it to unpleasant conditions, including temperatures of up to 60 degrees Celsius and high winds. “We are achieving temperatures inside of 26 degrees in the hottest conditions outside,” says Björn Buchholz, head of HVAC and door systems.