Chile. The first train of the Santiago underground metro that works with air conditioning has already become active. Nine cars out of 14 in total inaugurated this initiative which will be completed in October 2013.
The air conditioning system will reduce the temperature inside the trains, which will provide greater comfort to the more than 1,500 passengers who use Line 1 of the mass transit system.
Cooling systems are installed on the back of the roof of the wagons. This equipment will allow the temperature inside the trains not to exceed 28°C. The variation of temperature degrees inside the car is based on the European standard (EN14750-1) that regulates the comfort parameters -such as temperature, humidity, volume of cold air outlet, among others-, for urban and suburban rolling stock. Likewise, the experiences of the subways of Madrid, Brussels and especially that of Sao Paulo were collected, given characteristics of temperatures and implementation of equipment of similar characteristics.
The air conditioning equipment will be fed in 50% of air captured from the outside and 50% from inside (thus a renewal effect occurs), which once cooled will be distributed throughout the wagon.
Metro's administration also has an estimated 2016 to acquire another 32 new trains to complete the air-conditioned Line 1 fleet. In Lines 2 and 5, 245 cars will be installed that will leave 60% of the fleet with the air conditioning system.
The investment of this project exceeds US$226 million.
