TRANSPORT FOR London has confirmed its revised plans to increase capacity on the Jubilee and Northern Lines following the cancellation of an order for additional trains.
Along with the Victoria Line, the lines form part of TfL’s World Class Capacity (WCC) Programme. The Jubilee and Northern Additional Trains (JNAT) procurement, covering 10 additional trains for the Jubilee Line and 17 for the Northern Line, was abandoned last autumn as a cost saving measure. Instead, TfL said it would tweak infrastructure, signalling and fleet utilisation to increase capacity on the lines.
A paper presented to TfL’s Programmes and Investment Committee on 3 July confirms the intention now is to increase capacity on the Jubilee Line to 32 trains per hour (tph) between West Hampstead and North Greenwich at peak times by the end of 2021. This compared to ambitions to operate between 34 and 36tph using the additional trains. A timetable enhancement this May extended the current 30tph peak service on the same stretch to operate for around 2½ hours in each direction in both the morning and evening peaks.
On the Northern Line, a minimum of 31tph will operate on the Morden branch in peak periods in early 2020. This will also facilitate a small capacity improvement on the Bank branch and will enable the introduction of services from Battersea once the Northern Line extension is completed. The current high peak service of 30tph northwards from Morden and 24tph on the Bank and Charing Cross branches was extended to run for two hours in January. The revised plans see other branches retain a 24tph peak frequency; under previous plans with the new trains it was hoped this frequency could reach 30tph by 2023.
The paper explains the scope of works required to facilitate these improvements. On the Jubilee Line this includes signalling modifications, improvements to maintenance infrastructure at Stratford Market Depot, modifications to improve train fault diagnostic capability and changes to maintenance processes. On the Northern Line the work also includes signalling modifications and changes to maintenance processes, alongside minor power works, improvements to maintenance infrastructure at Morden depot, track works and braking improvements to enable faster speeds, renewal of track in the Kennington area and a track upgrade at East Finchley. Power works seek to provide additional resilience to the Northern Line services and enhance network power capacity to support increased service on the sub-surface lines once the Four Lines Modernisation (4LM) programme has been completed.
On the Victoria Line, the high peak frequency is currently 36tph for a 90-minute period in both the morning and evening peaks; TfL plans to extend this to the full three-hour peak in both the morning and evening in early 2019.
