The Northern City Line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate marked one year on Tuesday, 19 May, since the removal of its physical lineside signals.

The route became Britain’s first ‘no signals’ commuter railway in May 2025, with almost 70,000 Great Northern services since operated using digital in-cab signalling.

The NCL project forms a key ‘pathfinder’ for the introduction of digital signalling on the East Coast Main Line later this year. Part of the Government-funded £1.4 billion East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP), it is set to become the world’s largest and most complex digital signalling migration.

Lessons from integrating the European Train Control System (ETCS), alongside driver and signaller preparation and industry assurance, have informed the wider rollout.

Reliability on the route has also seen steady improvement since the move from overlay signalling to a fully no-signals railway.

“I’d like to thank all our teams across our partners who have worked hard to embed ‘no signals’ operations on the NCL as part of the regular, day-to-day service pattern.

“We’ve ‘learned by doing’ on NCL, where we successfully secured the necessary approvals and  integrated across track and train. We’re now close to beginning the introduction of digital in-cab signalling on the East Coast Main Line, with significant learnings informing a gradual migration plan aimed at ensuring high performance throughout.”

Sarah Jane Crawford, Network Rail’s industry partnership director, ECDP.