London’s transport network went into meltdown on Tuesday as temperatures soared to the hottest May day on record.
Commuters complained about “sauna-like” conditions on the Underground amid severe delays on the Central and Jubilee lines during the blistering heat.
Outside, the mercury hit as high as 35C in Kew Gardens.
Underground, commuters endured sweltering conditions of up to 34.3C.
The Standard recorded the temperatures on trains and platforms across the city on Tuesday afternoon.
The peak reading was 34.3C on the Central Line platform at Oxford Circus.
The highest temperatures were:
Central Line - 34.3C
Bakerloo Line - 33.1C
Victoria Line - 33.1C
Jubilee Line - 32.1C
Piccadilly Line - 30.4C
Northern Line - 30.6
There is air conditioning on the District and Circle lines, but trains on still recorded highs of 28.7C.
Tom Brown, who was commuting from the city on the Central Line during rush hour, said: “It’s like a sauna down here. Every year it gets worse, I can’t understand why they haven’t sorted it yet.”
Nick Dent, TfL’s Director of Customer Operations, said work to make London’s transport network “remain resilient in the face of more extreme and frequent hot weather events” was ongoing.
He added: “We are investing millions as part of our continuous work to improve the network, which includes introducing new trains to meet growing customer numbers whilst providing more comfortable journeys.
“We have implemented energy efficient solutions on new trains, which reduce the heat generated.
“Alongside tunnel ventilation systems, there is air conditioning on more than 190 Tube trains, covering 40 per cent of the Underground network, and on all of the London Overground and Elizabeth line trains.
“The introduction of new trains on the Piccadilly line and the DLR will see air-conditioning available to even more customers when travelling.
“We’re constantly looking at how innovative solutions can be rolled more widely on the transport network to ensure more passengers experience cool and comfortable journeys in the summer.”
Campaigners have called the record-breaking temperatures “mind-bogglingly crazy” as they warned that the current heatwave has been made worse by human-driven climate change.
Scientists argue the immediate cause of this heatwave across western Europe is a “heat dome”, which involves a high-pressure weather system stalling over a region and trapping heat.
However, they also warn that human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe.
The Met Office said a climate attribution study published last summer by its scientists found that the chances of surpassing the May temperature record “have been increasing as our climate changes as a consequence of human greenhouse gas emissions”.
Peter Thorne, director of the Icarus Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University, said: “We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heatwave events such as this have been made more likely and more severe due to climate change arising from our emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
“But nevertheless many of the records being set, particularly in the UK and France, are mind-bogglingly crazy.”
