First two new tube trains for Piccadilly line built and due in UK this summer
A Transport for London meeting today offers an update on progress towards introducing new trains to the Piccadilly line.
Existing stock on the line is nearing 50 years old with work underway building the New Tube for London in Germany.
A TfL Board meeting underway at the time of writing (Tuesday 11 June) states that the “first two fully assembled trains are now at Siemens’ test and validation centre” with the first due to arrive in London imminently.
Both trains are at Siemen’s Validation Centre in Wildenrath with the meeting notes that totals being built in the UK will increase. A “revised schedule announced in December 2023, up to 80 per cent of the new trains will now be built in the UK at Siemens’ factory in Goole, Yorkshire, surpassing the 50 per cent target”.
Alongside new trains will be new sidings and the report highlights that “the construction of three new stabling and reversing sidings at Northfields is substantially complete with final commissioning planned for the autumn”.
New trains and upgraded sidings will see total stock numbers increase from 86 to 94 enabling an uplift in peak-time trains from 24 to 27 per hour.
The stock will be the first deep-level tube trains with air con and will also feature walk-through carriages.
Trans are expected to begin entering service from 2025 with frequency increases from 2028. The line serves Heathrow airport which has just seen its busiest ever month according to news out today.
Future improvements
A potential further uplift is dependent on signalling upgrades and further trains being ordered to enable a potential 36 trains per hour and compete with the Victoria line for frequency levels.
That would require support from central government for capital spending, however requests for £500 million were not met with government pledging £250 million.
While the Piccadilly line is seeing new trains there’s no confirmed order for Bakerloo line stock, which are now 52 years old.
I wonder if the Siemen’s Validation Centre in Wildenrath has installed a fourth rail for testing the new trains ? I somehow doubt it. I understand the original reason for a fourth rail on deep level routes but the continuing existence of a fourth rail on surface lines like the Metropolitan Line seems like a huge and unnecessary extra expense. I note that the East London Line had a fourth rail but this was removed when it joined the Overground.
The trains are being built in Vienna, Austria, and tested in Germany: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw0r7wkj847o
Just to address my sensibilities around Austria being described as Germany 😉
What about the Bakerloo Line. Is Siemens still the favourite candidate to build and manufacture new tube trains to replace the 1972 Stock used on the Bakerloo Line. Including at Goole, East Yorkshire.
I would like to see these new London Underground tube trains being rolled out on the Piccadilly Line and on other tube lines on the London Underground including the Bakerloo Line, Central Line and Waterloo and City Line over the next couple years. As part of New Tube for London. As well as new DLR trains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_2024_Stock