The London Underground (LU), one of the most prominent metro systems globally, is undergoing a major network upgrade programme.
It is estimated that from 2011 to 2014/15, Transport for London (TfL) is investing approximately £1.4 billion annually for the Tube’s capital expenditure programme, including line upgrade activities such as re-signalling, new rolling stock procurement and track replacement.
The sprawling network consists of nearly 402 km of track and 270 stations, performing approximately 4 million passenger journeys per day.
It carries approximately 1.10 billion passengers per annum, which is more than the yearly passenger journeys across the rest of the United Kingdom rail network put together.
With the Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in London in 2012, the LU is projected to remain even more under intense scrutiny.
“Restructuring a network as complicated and old as the LU is one fraught with great difficulties,” says Senior Research Analyst, Sudhakaran Jampala, from Frost & Sullivan.
“Since the beginning of the programme in 2003, the LU upgrade programme has been plagued by project delays and criticism for frequent line closures. TfL, however, is likely to move strongly towards complete transformation with effective objectives based project management procedures in place.”
Under the oversight of TfL, a new signalling system came into operation on the Jubilee line in June 2011, which has been converted to Automatic Train Control (ATC) using the Thales SelTrac S40 Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) system.
The system is projected to increase capacity by 33 per cent before the 2012 Olympics, adding another 12,500 passengers per hour and reducing journey time by 22 per cent.
On the Victoria line, the 1967 train stock has been replaced with Bombardier 2009 stock built in Derby.
The new trains allow the implementation of the Invensys Distance To Go – Radio (DTG-R) Automatic Train Protection (ATP) product, which would help to increase the number of trains per hour to 33 from 27, once the upgrade is complete.
By 2016, the LU will have also replaced over 40 per cent of its fleet on the 4 sub-surface railway (SSR) lines (District, Hammersmith & City, Circle and Metropolitan) and the ‘Deep Tube’ Victoria line, with a total of 1,778 Bombardier MOVIA metro trainsets.
They contain features such as CCTV cameras, increased aisle width, passenger-driver two-way communication enabled emergency alarms, as well as air conditioning and walkthrough gangways.
“Once the upgrade of the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines is complete, capacity will increase by 65%, which is an additional 17,000 passengers an hour,” says Mr. Jampala.
The upgrade on the Northern Line is scheduled to be accomplished by 2014 and includes a new control centre, ATC and computerised signalling, using a technology similar to the Thales SelTrac system on the Jubilee line.
Capacity will be increased by 20 per cent and journey times reduced by 18 per cent.
As part of the ‘Deep Tube’ programme (Central, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly, Waterloo & City lines), TfL will upgrade the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines.
A common rolling stock design will be utilised for both lines, which is expected to produce synergistic cost savings.
LU has already requested major train manufacturers, Bombardier, Siemens and Alstom, to develop an innovative train concept. The focus lies on aspects such as being lightweight, energy efficient, semi-articulated and aluminium bodied.
Even though Siemens already unveiled its deep tube concept train at Railtex 2011, LU will launch an open competition for the procurement of the new rolling stock, which is expected in 2012.
The next decade may see Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines run on a new concept train called “Evo” (for ‘evolution’). Procurement processes for new rolling stock on Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and Waterloo & City lines are expected to begin before 2020.
“The SSR upgrade programme is scheduled for completion by 2018, while the BCV/SSR Stations (lifts, escalators and accommodation) programme is targeted for completion by 2017 or 2018,” outlines Mr. Jampala.
“Apart from new rolling stock and signalling, a major business opportunity arises out of the TfL investment programme for upgrading the stations.
“Between now and 2020, Frost & Sullivan estimates that TfL will invest close to £2.00 billion in station upgrade activities, covering stations such as Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.”
“Further innovations are likely to be seen in the area of ticketing procedures and driverless trains in the future. The level of customer satisfaction over the coming years will inform the industry as to the degree of success of TfL’s sweeping programme of transformation,” he concludes.
Related articles:
- London Underground carries record number of passengers
- Bombardier to deliver major London Underground signalling upgrade
- Mayor of London, Boris Johnson announces major progress with Jubilee line upgrade
