Tender issued for design of New Tube for London trains

London Underground issued the Invitation To Tender for the design and construction of the New Tube for London (NTfL) on January 18.

The deal is for 250 trains and is worth between £1 billion and £2.5bn. Bidders must make their submissions by the summer, and the winner will be announced in autumn 2017.

Five companies have prequalified to bid for the work: Alstom, Bombardier, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), Hitachi and Siemens. They can now proceed to the next stage of the work. LU initially placed a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) for the contract in February 2014.

The trains will be the first to have air-conditioning on the Deep Tube network (see feature, pages 100-103). They will also be ‘futureproofed’ for fully automatic, driverless operation, and are expected to serve LU for around 50 years.

London Mayor Boris Johnson MP, said: “Over the last few years we have seen the completion of several major signalling upgrades on the Tube, as well as the delivery of 191 brand new air-conditioned walk-through trains.

“But it is clear that London must have continued investment in its Tube network if it is to continue to flourish, and that is why I have argued so hard to protect our capital investment programme. I am delighted that we are now able to launch the process to commission a fleet of new deeplevel Tube trains that will transform journeys for the millions of passengers who use our Piccadilly, Waterloo & City, Bakerloo and Central lines.”

London Underground Managing Director Nick Brown said: “Today’s invitation to train manufacturers to submit bids for the design and build of the New Tube is a significant step forward. To meet the needs of our rapidly growing population we must continue to invest in and improve our services. More people are using the Underground than at any point in its 153-year history.”

The first trains are expected to enter traffic on the Piccadilly Line. The plan is for 100 trains on that line, ten for the Waterloo & City, 40 for Bakerloo and 100 for the Central Line.

According to TfL, the design will feature “attractive internal styling that echoes the Underground’s heritage, and will also help to support new jobs and growth elsewhere in the UK”.