Transport for London (TfL) has announced partial closures of the Piccadilly line to allow preparation work for the line’s new fleet of trains.
The new fleet is due to begin entering service between December 2026 and June 2027, which is later than originally planned.
The trains will have walk-through carriages and better reliability, frequency and CCTV.
Accessibility improvements include wide doors. They will also be the first trains on London Underground’s Deep Tube lines to have air-conditioning.
During the partial closures, TfL will upgrade the power supply, tracks, platforms, depots and sidings.
It will also continue testing of the new trains’ interaction with London Underground’s infrastructure, and will assess their efficiency and performance.
During previous partial closures of the line, TfL has tested the weight-load capacity of the new trains, driving them for 400km with a full load of 68 tonnes.
It has also carried out work on 119 platforms to prepare them to accommodate the new, longer trains.
Most of the planned closures will take place at weekends, but there will be some weekday closures in August.
The trains will have 10 per cent more capacity, and 27 will run each hour, compared with the current 24. The trains are lighter than those they will replace, so they will use 20 per cent less energy.
TfL is currently testing four of the new trains during overnight engineering hours and weekend closures. In the coming months, they will begin testing during passenger hours.
I’d like to thank our customers for their patience while we carry out these essential upgrades to the Piccadilly line and rigorously test the new trains which will transform journeys for many decades to come. Introducing a new fleet of trains is a huge engineering and logistical feat which inevitably requires upgrades and intensive testing. Although much of the hard work goes on behind the scenes, there are times when we need to close sections of the railway to ensure that these pioneering new trains can operate effectively and interact correctly with a wide range of complex infrastructure. We are very confident that once this intensive period of upgrades and testing is completed, and the new trains start to enter service, our customers will reap the benefits of moving around the capital on these game-changing new trains.
Stuart Harvey, TfL’s Chief Capital Officer
Responses
I still think that the Bakerloo Line should consider replacing their existing 1972 Stock with plans to extend the Bakerloo Line from Elephant and Castle to Lewisham and Bromley or Hayes.