Siemens Mobility has delivered the first trainset intended to replace the 1970s fleet on London Underground’s Piccadilly Line. The trainset has arrived this week at the Wegberg-Wildenrath Test & Validation Centre in Germany for testing, including assessments of acceleration, braking, noise, vibration, and onboard hardware and software. The trains, scheduled for delivery to the UK in 2024 and entering service in 2025.
The new fleet is based on Siemens Mobility’s Inspiro metro family and feature an articulated configuration with a walk-through interior, providing 10% more capacity than the current 1973 stock while enhancing accessibility. Wider doors will facilitate faster boarding and alighting, and the articulated design will reduce the number of bogies, making the trains lighter. Notably, they will be the first trains on London’s deep-level tube network to have air-conditioning. On the so-called sub-surface network, the air-conditioned vehicles of the S7 and S8 series from Bombardier (now Alstom) have been in use since 2010 and 2012 respectively.
Around half of the 94 nine-car trainsets will be manufactured in Vienna, with the remaining assembled at a factory in Goole, East Yorkshire (UK). The contract, awarded to Siemens Mobility by Transport for London in November 2018, is valued at approximately £1.48bn. The final design has been presented in 2021. We reported here:
TfL has the option to order more trains for other lines, subject to securing funding.
04.08.2023
