London Underground to get big upgrade

Transport for London have announced a big investment in new tube trains on four of their lines. The Circle, District, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines will be getting longer and redesigned trains that have air-conditioning, hallelujah. I was on a tube train last week and it was so stuffy on the platform, even in late November. Then a packed train rolled in and that was really not pleasant, squeezed in with elbows and armpits in your face.

There are still Underground lines running the old design of train where the seats are set across the width of the carriage rather than along its length. This means the room for people standing becomes very tight and when passengers are trying to get on and off a crowded train its a bit of a shoving match, the new trains should give 25% more room for the travelling public.
TFL are spending £3.1billion over three years starting in 2009, which they should be doing if they’re going to keep hitting the car driver coming into London.

The UK’s Transport Secretary has also said that airport style scanners for people and baggage is likely to be introduced at certain stations around London after his department had completed trials at Paddington Heathrow Express, Canary Wharf, Greenford, Euston and Brighton stations. Douglas Alexander thinks the public is ready to except more security in their commuting. The public will do what they’re told but if someone wants to blow up another train like the ones in July 2005 its virtually impossible to stop them, the train and tube network is just too big.

Getting some air conditioning in the platform areas of tube stations is something I’d TFL working on, they keep predicting the summers will be hotter so lets make life bearable for Underground users.