UK: The new air-conditioned trains which Siemens Mobility is supplying for London Underground’s Piccadilly Line are now expected to enter service from the second half of 2026, Transport for London has confirmed.
When the order was signed in November 2018 it was envisaged that the trains would enter service from 2024.
On June 20, TfL said ‘this is an ambitious upgrade programme with the most complex train that has ever been introduced onto the Tube network’. Since the first trainset was delivered to London, its engineers have been able to ‘identify and better understand the challenges’ of testing and preparation for passenger service. It has been found that this will be ‘more complex than expected’, and testing of the interactions with the infrastructure and railway systems has had to be rescheduled.
TfL said ‘given the complexity of introducing this novel train into a railway that is more than 100 years old and that is shared with other trains at some locations, it is expected that there will need to be time to address any issues identified.’ TfL said ‘all mitigations or design alterations will be incorporated into all future trains’.
Chief Capital Officer Stuart Harvey said ‘it will obviously be disappointing for customers that they will have to wait a bit longer for the new trains, and I regret that. But I would like to assure Londoners and visitors to our city that we are working extremely closely with Siemens to ensure that the new trains can be introduced as soon as possible.’
Sambit Banerjee, Joint CEO of Siemens Mobility’s UK business, said ‘any project like this is complicated – we’re bringing state-of-the-art, air-conditioned, walk-through trains into tunnels that were built 120 years ago. We’re sorry we can’t have our innovative trains running for passengers even sooner but, once they’re in service, the technology on these new trains will bring smoother, greener and more comfortable journeys for Londoners for the next 30 or more years.’
Meanwhile, TfL said it is ‘progressing discussions’ about its option to order similar trains for the Bakerloo Line, which is currently operated using the oldest trains in regular passenger service in the UK.
- The Docklands Light Railway is to implement ‘short-term timetable changes’ on less busy routes from July 21. The reduction in services aims to ensure that reliability can be maintained pending the delayed introduction of new CAF trainsets, which was originally planned for 2023 but is now expected later this year. TfL said the age of the existing trains meant some needed to be retired this summer.
