Warm welcome for first air-con Tube train

London's first air-conditioned Tube train arrived today on a low-loader lorry before being driven along the tracks from Amersham to Neasden.

It will enter service next year - one of 58 S-stock trains which also feature walk-through cars and wider doors and walkways that will replace rolling stock on the Metropolitan line by 2011.

Nearly 200 are being brought in over the next six years on the Circle, District and Hammermith & City lines. Boris Johnson said today's delivery was a "milestone in the rebuilding of our transport system". But passengers will have to wait years for air-conditioning on deep lines such as the Central, Northern and Bakerloo, which get hottest in summer, because they are too deep to expel the heat pushed out by air conditioning.

The delivery came on the day the board of Transport for London was meeting to agree its new business plan, which promises to guarantee key investments over the next decade.

Last week the Mayor announced Tube and bus fare rises of up to 20 per cent as TfL struggles to save £3.6billion. Mr Johnson said today: "It is essential that we keep investing in London's critical transport projects."