Skip to main content

Bombardier to supply new propulsion technology to London Underground

Rail technology supplier Bombardier Transportation has been awarded a contract by London Underground to supply new motors and traction control equipment for its fleet of Central line trains. This contract, which includes ongoing maintenance support, will run until 2024 and is valued by Bombardier Transportation at approximately US$143.7 million (£112.1 million). Bombardier's re-traction project is part of London Underground's larger Central Line Improvement Programme (which aims to bring a number of pas
August 29, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Rail technology supplier 513 Bombardier Transportation has been awarded a contract by London Underground to supply new motors and traction control equipment for its fleet of Central line trains. This contract, which includes ongoing maintenance support, will run until 2024 and is valued by Bombardier Transportation at approximately US$143.7 million (£112.1 million).

Bombardier's re-traction project is part of London Underground's larger Central Line Improvement Programme (which aims to bring a number of passenger-focussed improvements and is expected to reduce customer-affecting failures on the Central line fleet.

For the programme, Bombardier will replace the direct current (DC) traction motors on Central line trains with the latest MITRAC alternating current (AC) traction systems and MITRAC traction control equipment. The Central Line '92 tube stock are the last London Underground trains to use DC traction motors, and MITRAC will bring benefits by reducing energy consumption while improving fleet reliability and performance. In total, Bombardier will supply new motors and traction control equipment for 85 eight-car Central Line trains (680 cars in total).

Related Content

  • February 13, 2014
    The smart tram, M2M solution for urban transport
    A joint pilot project involving Kapsch CarrierCom, Bombardier and Linz AG Linien has demonstrated machine to machine (M2M) communication for use in the urban transport sector. The solution developed by Kapsch was installed in a number of Linz AG Linien trams in collaboration with the manufacturer Bombardier. The trams are equipped with numerous sensors, which measure various parameters. The data is transmitted to the operations control centre in real time and continuously analysed, enabling the tram oper
  • August 23, 2012
    Zipcar and Houston launch first of its kind municipal EV car sharing scheme
    Leading car sharing network company Zipcar has announced a new partnership with the city of Houston to launch a municipal electric vehicle (EV) fleet sharing programme, called Houston Fleet Share. Through this initiative, 50 existing city-owned fleet vehicles – including 25 Nissan Leaf EVs – will be outfitted with Zipcar's FastFleet proprietary fleet sharing technology for use by city employees across all departments.
  • June 1, 2022
    Indra gets on board Cairo monorail
    Group will provide ticketing technology and access control for Egypt's new transit system
  • February 2, 2012
    Carbon finance delivers critical support to mass transit schemes
    David Crawford investigates carbon finance in transport. World Bank carbon finance grants are delivering critical support to major mass transit deployments in emerging and developing economies. Only recently operative in the transport sector, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM, see panel) is designed to generate additional income streams and improve internal rates of return on projects funded from public- and private-sector sources.