Coming 2025: New trains enter service on Piccadilly line
Following previous looks at transport changes this year we now reach new tube trains that are set to begin running this year on the Piccadilly line.
Now this may be a tad bold as despite Transport for London stating introduction this year, the history of new train introduction is not a good one. We just have to look at DLR trains which were due in 2024 and still have no confirmed month of entry this year as well as the mammoth five year delay on new trains for South Western Railway.
Regardless, TfL do state “new state-of-the-art Piccadilly line trains will start entering service by the end of 2025 with the full fleet of 94 trains expected to be rolled out by the end of 2027”.
The first train reached London in October last year and upon entering service will displace trains now 50 years old.
Piccadilly line train improvements
That brings us onto the new trains being built by Siemens and when fully introduced will see service frequencies increase from 24 to 27 trains per hour.
Features include air-conditioning which is the first on deep-tube stock, walk-through carriages and wider doorways to speed boarding.
To accommodate a net increase in trains Cockfosters and Northfields depots are to see extra stabling tracks. South Harrow is also seeing additional sidings space.
A follow-up order could be made for replacement Bakerloo line stock which is now even older at 52 years of age, but that’s not confirmed and neither is an extension to Lewisham and required trains for such a project.
Even if it does get the green light, any extension is now not expected to complete until well into the 2030s and new trains will be needed long before then.
As the Piccadilly Line and DLR are getting brand new trains that are coming into service this year. The Bakerloo Line should also be getting new tube trains with the extension from Elephant and Castle to Lewisham, Bromley and Hayes.