Four of the oldest lines of London’s Underground—over 150 years old—are due for major engineering work that will allow them to run more trains faster as London’s growing population tries to jam into the cars. The work involves new signaling and train control equipment.
Thales, the French firm that won the bid for the billion-dollar-plus contract, will start this year, and finish in 2023 with work on the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines, which carry about 1.3 million passengers a day. The trains will continue to roll as the work is done. When done, the lines will be able to handle 32 trains an hour, provided passengers mind the gap and load quickly. That’s about a third more than now.
Once that work is done, new track and signals will be built for the next oldest lines, Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City. Overall the work is claimed to create or maintain up to 1100 jobs and 60 apprenticeships. The work was originally contracted out to Canada’s Bombardier in 2011, but delays and other issues resulted in cancellation in 2013 and a new bidding. More details from TheLocal.fr and Reuters.
District Line photo: Hahifuheho / Wikimedia
