Remarkable old Tubes still run but lack of funding cannot go on

[John Ashworth]

Remarkable old Tubes still run but lack of funding cannot go on, says TfL chief

London’s transport chief today warned that parts of the Tube were at risk of “serial decline” unless the Government helped to fund major upgrades.

Mike Brown said that a £1.5 billion fleet of 94 trains due on the Piccadilly line from 2023 would not be able to run any faster or more regularly than at present because there was no money to upgrade the “knackered” signalling system. A £656 million upgrade of Bank station would not deliver its full potential on the Northern line because trains would still get stuck in a bottleneck at Camden Town, he added...

“We have the two oldest fleets of trains now in the UK. The Piccadilly line trains were introduced in 1973, but they’re not quite as old as the Bakerloo line trains that were introduced in 1972 ... it’s quite remarkable that they’re still running, but it’s not sustainable”...