Signalling upgrade Weardale acquires Wensleydale ‘142’ threatens LU heritage services

Modernisation of the Metropolitan Line, including the introduction of Automatic Train Operation, could have a significant impact on future heritage operations.

TRANSPORT for London’s (TfL’s) decision to go ahead with the introduction of fully automated signalling north of Finchley Road on the Metropolitan Line, part of the Four Lines Modernisation programme (4LM), could create challenges for future heritage stock operating on London Underground (LU). The planned modernisation includes sections of track currently commonly used by heritage traction, between Harrow-on-the-Hill and the termini at Watford, Amersham and Uxbridge.

When the 4LM project was initially planned, all sections of the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines, LU’s Sub-Surface Railway (SSR), would be fitted with automatic signalling. The aim was to operate all four lines as a single railway system, using new S7 and S8 Stock, automatically synchronising services within central London. The signalling upgrade to Automatic Train Operation (ATO) was divided into SMA’s (Signal Migration Areas).

An early 4LM schedule showed that there would be 14 SMAs in total, all due to be implemented by the end of September 2021. However, the pandemic played havoc with the schedule, as well as TfL’s finances (see previous LU Worlds).

BUSINESS CASE RE-EXAMINED

In 2021, a decision was made to reexamine the business case to proceed with the resignalling programme on the Metropolitan Line north of Finchley Road. Here there are fewer immediate benefits, as services don’t need to operate as intensively as within the central London area.

If the decision not to proceed had been made, the ATO project would only have been completed up to SMA8. This reassessment was also informed by the impending delivery of new Piccadilly Line rolling stock, now referred to as 24 Tube Stock (TS). Of note, the Piccadilly Line shares track with both the Metropolitan and District Lines, which will also need to implement a new automatic signalling system to increase services.

The decision to proceed with introducing full ATO along the full length of the Metropolitan Line now is based on recognition that the current system is older than that used on the District Line. Therefore, maintenance costs are projected to be significantly higher in the short term, meaning that it is cheaper to replace the system now. As a result, all areas of the Metropolitan Line, including the termini, will now become fully automated, with the last SMA area going live during 2025.

So how might extending the ATO system north of Finchley Road impact heritage operations, that have only just started to be reintroduced, following the pandemic?

Heritage trains have already been excluded from the centre of London by the signalling upgrade to ATO. This area, traditionally bounded by the Circle Line, where all four SSR lines converge, now sees services operate at up to 32 trains per hour, controlled centrally form a new Service Control Centre at Hammersmith. Will heritage trains, TfL’s Met Vickers loco No. 12 Sarah Siddons, the LTM’s 1938 TS, Q Stock (once the restoration project completes) and even occasional historic steam traction hired for events need to be equipped with ATO gear? If so, will such equipment be sensitively installed? And how will this be funded? Alternatively, might these heritage trips become just a memory after 2025?

HERITAGE STOCK INSTALLATION

ATO signalling and the corresponding train equipment is expensive. The benefit of enabling trains to operate closer together and therefore more frequently, means that the cost to install the equipment can be easily justified for regular passenger service stock.

But does the same rationale stand up to financial analysis where heritage rolling stock is concerned? Particularly when restored trains will only ever operate infrequent charter trips or during special events, that typically run during weekends when there are fewer passenger services.

Back in 2015, the four car 1938 TS began a two-year overhaul. The work that was undertaken included upgrading the unit’s traction motors and braking equipment, allowing the unit to continue operating on the increased 750V DC network. Other repairs were also undertaken, which included attention to significant fatigue fractures in all eight bogies to ensure the train’s longevity as a heritage asset. Prior to the pandemic, a former LTM senior curator, Bob Bird, had mentioned that extensive investigative work to identify how ATO equipment could be installed had also been done during the overhaul (see LU World, September 2018). Due to a lack of space under THE the two solebar, Class 117 there power was cars talk at of the equipment Mid-Norfolk being Railway, permanently Nos. 51370 located and in a single 51412, leaf have passenger been joined doorway, by a trailer with the passenger car, No. 59520, door locked enabling out an of use.

THREE POTENTIAL OUTCOMES

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■ Heritage rolling stock operations will cease

The LTM is keen to avoid the last outcome. Sam Mullins OBE, director for London Transport Museum, has stated:

“It is our aspiration to continue running heritage trains on the Metropolitan line when the new 4LM signalling is introduced north of Finchley Road station in spring 2024. We will continue to work with Transport for London (TfL) to see how this might be possible, how this might be funded and what this could realistically look like in practice.”

Meanwhile, LTM intends to operate heritage trips in 2023, particularly as the most recent trip that operated between Amersham and Watford during the weekend of September 3/4 was fully booked, proving that there is the demand for such events, which are first posted on the LTM website.