Passengers give new Tube fans a chilly reception

Large fans are being installed at 40 Tube stations in an attempt to save passengers from another summer of sweltering heat.

With temperatures nearing 30C already, work has started on placing the industrial cooling devices at key places on the network.

Measures to make the Tube system cooler include:

Large ceiling-mounted fans on Bakerloo line platforms at Marylebone and Lambeth North.

A mechanical "chiller" unit at Euston.

Upgrading ventilation shafts on the Victoria line to double the air flow.

But travellers at Chancery Lane station were unimpressed today with the single fan placed at the bottom of the westbound escalator.

Lexia Murphy, 24, a legal secretary, said: "It's not really that cooling. You feel more of a breeze from a train coming past. They're going to need a lot more than this in rush hour."

Businessman Ihsan Kumar, 41, said: "There's no point in having it here because you're moving when you're on the escalators. They need it on the trains and on the platforms. It's useless."

Other fans will be placed at stations including Bank, Charing Cross and Bond Street as part of a longer-term plan which will see the first airconditioned trains introduced by 2010.

Mayor Boris Johnson said he was "chuffed to bits" that plans are under way for air-conditioned trains on the District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.

He said: "It always perplexed me that boffins could produce mobile phones the size of a credit card - yet passengers would emerge dripping with sweat from Tube trains that lacked air conditioning."

But he said deep-level Tube trains remain unlikely to be air-conditioned. "Providing air conditioning does remain a major challenge, especially on the deeper Tube lines such as the Northern and Piccadilly where we will continue to strive for a solution to the problem," he said.

Tube bosses ordered the fans amid fears of a repetition of scenes last year when people passed out because of the heat on trains and at platforms.

The number of passengers using the Tube is at an all-time high, making the problem of heat and humidity worse.

Ken Livingstone, when Mayor, warned there could be "serious loss of life" if trains were trapped in deep level tunnels as temperatures soar.

But there are fears that London Underground's £150 million programme to keep the trains cool, including piping ice-cold water drawn from deep under London around the network, have been cut back following the collapse of maintenance firm Metronet.

An LU spokesman refused to be drawn on the extent of possible cutbacks. He said: "We continue to explore and invest in ways to help cool the Tube, which remains an important part of our investment now and in the future."