The new Piccadilly line trains will be the first deep-level Tubes to be air cooled
(Picture: TfL)New trains on the Piccadilly line and Docklands Light Railway are among the next big upcoming projects to benefit passengers, London’s interim transport commissioner has revealed.
Andy Lord also held out the possibility of long-awaited new Central and Bakerloo line trains coming on board following the introduction of Piccadilly line trains — if funding can be secured.
He said the opening of the Elizabeth line had not resulted in a “material loss in Tube traffic” and there was the need to press ahead with the modernisation of the Underground as passenger numbers returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The first of 94 new Piccadilly line trains — which will be the first deep-level Tubes to be air cooled — is due to finished by next summer, when it will then enter testing in Germany.
Mr Lord visited the Siemens factory in Vienna this month to see it take shape — a key moment in the £3 billion modernisation of the line, which is used by one in 10 of all Tube passengers.
The new walk-through, more spacious trains — half of which will be built in a new Siemens factory nearing completion in Goole, Yorkshire — will undergo testing in London in summer 2024 and enter service in summer 2025.
They will be preceded by 54 new DLR trains — also air conditioned and walk-through — that are being built near Bilbao in Spain. They are due to enter service in 2024.
Mr Lord, who hopes to be appointed the permanent successor to Andy Byford next year, told the Standard: “We have still got a number of key programmes to deliver: the continued re-signalling of the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith and City lines, and the new Piccadilly line upgrade and trains.
“There is a new fleet for the Docklands Light Railway in 2024, and continuing our programme with bus electrification and Silvertown tunnel. We have lots to be getting on with — while trying to get our revenues up so we are financially sustainable by March 2024.”
However, the second phase of the Piccadilly upgrade — a new signalling system to allow 36 trains an hour to run at peak times — plus an additional 18 trains, is unfunded.
Without new signalling, peak frequencies on the Piccadilly line would only increase from 24 to 27 trains an hour.
There are also concerns that new train “stabling” and maintenance depots and track improvements have fallen behind schedule. New facilities are being built at South Harrow and Cockfosters and power supplies are being upgraded along the line.
The first phase of the upgrade is now not due to be completed until 2027, a year later than first hoped. The programme was slowed due to TfL cost pressures during the pandemic.
