by Since the subway carries up to four million passengers every day, many commuters are faced with sweltering hot conditions on the subway.
Rail travel experts JRPass have submitted a request for information to Transport for London (TfL) to identify the hottest tube lines and find out which line has received the most heat-related complaints.
As the BBC reported, JRPass’ FoI request revealed that the Victoria Line is the hottest subway line in the entire subway network.
The hottest month on the tube is September, when temperatures on the Victoria Line reach 31.25 °C.
The average temperature on Ibiza in the second week of August is 31 °C. This means that it is warmer on the Victoria Line in September than on the Spanish island in the summer months.
61.22 percent of all complaints related to excessive temperatures across the entire subway network occurred on the Victoria Line.
The average platform temperature in 2023 was 28.27 °C.
Between June and October the average temperature on the Victoria Line was above 30 °C, with the highest temperature recorded in September at 31.25 °C.
To combat these high temperatures, TfL responded to the FOI request by explaining that it had “removed heat from our station and tunnel environments by installing new ventilation and cooling solutions”, including doubling the capacity of its 13 ventilation shafts on the Victoria Line.
Second place goes to the Central Line with an average temperature of 26.78 °C.
The hottest month on the Central Line was September, when temperatures reached 30.89 °C.
In third and fourth place are the Bakerloo and Northern lines with an average temperature of 25.98 °C and 25.38 °C respectively.
Regarding the Central Line, TfL responded: “On the Central Line, we have installed solar-reflective material on the external surface of train roofs and solar control films on windows to minimise the amount of sunlight entering carriages.”
The coolest lines on the Underground network are the air-conditioned Circle, Hammersmith & City, District and Metropolitan (underground lines) lines, with an average temperature of 19.32 °C.
This makes these services the best routes for Londoners to escape the heat this week.
JRPass’s FoI request to TfL has revealed that the Victoria Line and Central Line have received the most complaints so far in 2024.
On both lines, four complaints were received each about excessive temperatures on the line.
In second place is the Northern Line with three complaints, followed by the Bakerloo Line with two.
