Cooling London's Underground.

Victoria Underground station is to be the first to benefit from trials of an environmentally friendly groundwater cooling system involving the pumping of cold water through heat exchange units installed on the stations platforms. Like many deep level stations in the London underground network, Victoria is actually under water, and 35 litres per second have to be pumped out in order to prevent the water from coming through the walls. This water is to be redirected into the experimental cooling system. The trials are to run for a year and if successful, similar cooling systems will be installed in 30 other deep-level stations. Temperatures in the tunnels often reach up to 30 degrees during summer, however the groundwater cooling system will only give relief from the heat on the platforms. Air-conditioned trains are on order for the Circle, District, Hammersmith and City & Metropolitan lines, but these will not be operative until 2009.