Mace Group

Information

Mace is working with TfL on the Cooling the Tube Programme, having secured contracts under the TfL framework to provide a team of project and commercial management staff into the programme. Mace staff are leading the delivery of several of the key projects which form this major programme of works.

TfL is investing £150m of its £10 bn programme to address the issue of heat on the Tube. Getting heat out of the London Underground (LU) network is a huge engineering challenge. TfL has established a dedicated programme team to provide solutions to prevent temperatures on deepest parts of the network rising to unacceptable levels.

The need to avoid increasing temperatures on the Underground system is actually the flipside of TfL's success. Services are planned to increase by 25%, and new trains, that can accelerate quicker, are on order. However, increasing numbers of customers and trains requires more energy and even when the best of modern technology is applied, the consequence is that more energy creates more heat.

Controlling temperatures is harder than ever before, because the ground around the tunnels has heated up over the many years since they were built.

Keeping customers on the Tube cool involves developing new technologies, as well as making best use of more traditional approaches. Every effort is being made to ensure that "green" methods are used wherever practical and the use of these methods has already earned the cooling the tube programme two prestigious awards for sustainability.