The Piccadilly line is one of the least reliable Tube lines and passengers face years of delays before an upgrade is completed, the Standard has learned.
Passenger groups say the line has suffered from weeks of delays, highlighted on Tuesday when there was a 15-minute gap between trains and travellers were advised not to use it.
Transport for London commissioner Andy Lord said the arrival of the first of 94 new “air-cooled” trains in the summer of 2025 would increase capacity on the line, which is used by one in 10 Tube passengers. But he admitted it was impossible to say when train frequencies could be increased from about 24 to 36 an hour at peak times until Government funding was secured for a new signalling system.
Latest TfL data, for the four weeks to February 5, shows that the Piccadilly line was the second least reliable line of the 11 on the Underground, with only 86.8 per cent of weekday trains running.
Only the Jubilee line performed worse. At peak times, Piccadilly line trains only operated on 85.7 per cent of scheduled mileage — well below the 97.5 per cent on the Northern line or 94.6 per cent on the Victoria. It also emerged that TfL has not published two key metrics that show the extent of delays on the Tube — excess journey time and lost customer hours — for more than three years.
Tuesday’s chaos was caused by a signalling fault between King’s Cross and Caledonian Road. Mr Lord admitted the line suffered “occasional technical failures” but denied it had become the “biggest headache” on the Tube.
The new trains will be followed by some track improvements and a power upgrade — but a comprehensive new signalling system is needed to maximise the benefits of the new trains.
Mr Lord said: “The new trains will increase capacity on the Piccadilly line by between 10 to 12 per cent because they are walk-through trains, they are bigger, they have more capacity.
“We will have sufficient trains to increase the frequency from about 24 trains an hour to about 27 but to get up to the maximum capacity those trains could offer, which could be 32, 34 or even 36 trains an hour, we need a new signalling system because the current signalling system does not have the capability for that. The reality is that those new trains will arrive but we won’t be able to use them to their maximum capacity. This is why it is so important we get the investment we need.”
London TravelWatch, the passenger watchdog, is to urge TfL to return to providing regular updates on Tube delays. Its chief executive, Michael Roberts, said: “TfL haven’t updated their Excess Journey Time metric since 2019/20, to provide a public record of when services have been disrupted.” He said TfL blamed this on the much-reduced passenger numbers during Covid affecting figures, but passenger demand is now closer to pre-pandemic levels.
