TfL teams up with Danone to give out bottles of evian to customers on the Tube

Customers reminded to carry water while travelling on the Tube

evian supplies passengers with 250,000 free bottles of water this summer

First giveaway taking place today at Waterloo Underground Station  

Transport for London (TfL) has teamed up with Danone Waters UK & Ireland Ltd to give out free bottles of evian natural mineral water to customers, helping to emphasise the advice to carry water while travelling on the Tube.  

As the hot weather in the capital continues, Danone has provided London Underground with 250,000 bottles of evian water, which will be given out at some of the busiest stations on the London Underground network this summer in support of TfL's ongoing Beat the Heat and Travel Better London campaign.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of how passengers can help to reduce delays and improve the environment for themselves and fellow travellers by making small changes to their travel habits.

The company has also agreed a three-year partnership with Transport for London which will see additional water distribution days across the Tube network during the summer months until 2017. The partnership will help secure evian's presence across London, which is also supported by its annual Live Young January campaigns and sponsorship of The Championships at Wimbledon.

Phil Hufton, LU's Chief Operating Officer, said: "We know travelling around London during the summer months can be uncomfortable but we are making real headway towards cooling the Tube. New air conditioned trains are operating on the Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines and are being rolled out on the District line. By the end of 2016, 40 per cent of the network will be served by air conditioned trains. However, there is still work to do. Cooling the deeper lines of the Tube is the big engineering challenge - but we're making significant steps forward and are not complacent about finding solutions.  

"We're grateful to Danone for supplying customers with water and, while we make improvements across the network, passengers can also play a key role in helping us to deliver an even more efficient service. I'm sure this partnership will be welcomed by customers as temperatures are set to rise, and I hope that it gets across the advice that we are giving to customers to carry water while travelling on the Tube."

Sophie Brooks, evian senior brand manager, said: "We are delighted to have teamed up with TFL to give overheated commuters some Live Young refreshment. It is really important to stay hydrated during the hot weather so it is great to have the chance to help Londoners keep cool."

TfL gives the following advice to customers travelling on the Tube in the summer months: Carry water with you; Don't board a train or bus if you feel unwell;If you feel unwell please get off at the next stop and seek help from our staff  and;Avoid pulling the passenger alarm between stations, and get off of the train at the next stop as help can be more easily obtained on a platform

Cooling the Tube, progress so far: ·        
  • New trains equipped with air cooling will be delivered for the sub-surface network (Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines). Now serving the Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City lines and currently being rolled out on to the Wimbledon to Edgware Road branch of the District line. All 191 trains will be covering 40 per cent of the network by 2016
  • Ground water cooling - the trial started at Victoria station in summer 2006 and has been successful and has improved temperatures in the mid platform area. The groundwater trial provides an environmentally friendly cooling solution for the Victoria line platforms at Victoria station and uses groundwater which is already pumped out of the station. Across the Tube network, LU pumps out 30 million litres of water each day
  • Ventilation shafts - Work to double the capacity of the fans at all the main ventilations shafts serving the Victoria line were completed in 2011, a total of 13
  • The Victoria line train fleet has been replaced which will enable LU to operate the environmentally friendly regenerative braking system, which returns power to the rails while the train is braking. That will reduce the amount of heat that is generated and should therefore reduce the temperature in the tunnel
  • Coupled with the new trains ventilation system, which will circulate cool air from ground level in the tunnel and distribute it into the carriage at head height, this will mean more comfortable journeys for customers during the hot summer months
  • Out of service fans - London Underground is working to re-condition and upgrade the existing station ventilation fan network. 83 ventilation fans have now been restored, more than doubling the capacity of the fan network
  • Portable fans - In 2008 fans were installed within tickets and concourse areas, to increase air circulation at a number of stations
  • Mechanical Chiller units - Mechanical chiller units which provide cooling to customers and staff in the ticket hall area have now been installed at Oxford Circus and Euston stations
  • Station cooling - Works at two of London's busiest Tube stations, Green Park and Oxford Circus, were completed in 2012 with the installation of air cooling units that reduces temperatures at platform level. At Green Park the air cooling units use cool water extracted via boreholes from the acquifer deep below Green Park
  • At Oxford Circus station where there were already air cooling units in the ticket hall, the scheme was expanded to include all platforms areas (Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines). The new platform cooling units that have been installed use cool water provided by chiller units that have been installed on top of a building owned by Transport for London, which is adjacent to the station
  • Impulse fans - LU has installed high speed ceiling mounted impulse fans on Bakerloo line platforms at Marylebone and Lambeth North stations.

 Travel Better London campaign:

  • The Travel Better London campaign was launched in September 2013, more information can be found at www.tfl.gov.uk/travelbetterlondon
  • The campaign, featuring a set of poems, aims to raise awareness of how passengers can help to reduce transport delays and improve the environment for fellow travellers by making small changes to their travel habits.  The actions which can cause delays include litter dropping, pulling the passenger alarm, holding the doors open and not letting passengers off trains before they get on
  • Delays to customers' journeys have been reduced by 37 per cent since 2008/09 and 53 per cent since 2003/04. The continuing trend of long-term improvement follows the success of the London Underground Reliability Programme
  • Data from London Underground performance information database, a corporate record of incidents that cause disruption from July 2012 - August 2013
  • The travel habits highlighted in the campaign are:
  • Litter left on the Tube and in stations
  • Inappropriate use of passenger alarms and passengers falling ill on trains
  • Playing loud music
  • Eating smelly food on board vehicles
  • Holding train doors open
  • Moving down the platform
  • Moving down inside the carriage to allow room for other passengers
  • Putting feet on seats
  • When the emergency alarm on a train is pulled, it will only stop when it is in the station. In other cases it will proceed directly to the next station and stop there where it is quicker and easier to get medical help. Last year there were 369 incidents, each lasting approximately 4 and a half minutes caused by unwanted use of the emergency alarms on trains.

About evian®

Each drop of evian® Natural Mineral Water falls as rain or snow high on the pristine peaks of the French Alps. It then travels through a vast mineral aquifer deep within the mountains before emerging at the spring in Evian-Les-Bains. This amazing journey is the secret to evian®'s purity and it takes over 15 years.

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About Danone Waters (UK & Ireland) Limited (DWUK)

DWUK is the parent company of the bottled waters and beverages produced by evian®, Volvic® and BADOIT®.

DWUK is a member of the Worldwide Groupe Danone family which also includes Danone Ltd, Danone Baby Nutrition and Nutricia Medical.

For more information visit our UK website www.danone.co.uk or global website www.danone.com.