Skip to main content

New signalling technology for Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines 2018

Thales has tested a new signalling control system on sub-surface trains on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, which enable trains to run closer together. The test aims to provide a more frequent service, reduce waiting times and help boost capacity for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. The system will go live on the first section of the network as early as 2018.
October 17, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

596 Thales has tested a new signalling control system on sub-surface trains on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, which enable trains to run closer together. The test aims to provide a more frequent service, reduce waiting times and help boost capacity for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. The system will go live on the first section of the network as early as 2018.

Further testing weekends will commence in the coming months as the system is being progressively installed across more of the network with a capacity increase of up to 33% across all four lines, which makes up 40% of the underground. It will also mean that Night Tube services can be introduced on these lines in the future.

The system is designed with the intention of reducing the number of signalling problems and improve the accuracy of real-time customer information. Services will begin to increase in frequency from 2021 when more of the network is operating the new system, and all four lines will be using the system by 2023.

Testing took place between Hammersmith and Latimer Road and featured three newly-enabled S Stock Trains. It involved using a signalling system to manage the distance between trains. The new S Stock trains are currently having new equipment installed, with 30 already fitted by 513 Bombardier.

The next testing weekend will start in December, with installation work continuing throughout the year.

Related Content

  • July 24, 2012
    Righter shade of pale
    Jon Tarleton, Quixote Transportation Technologies, Inc., talks about developments in mobile weather information gathering Quixote Transportation Technologies, Inc. (QTT) is promoting the greater use of mobile technologies to provide infill between fixed Road Weather Information System (RWIS) infrastructure. It is, the company says, a means of reducing the expense of providing comprehensive, network-wide coverage, particularly in geographic locations where the sheer number of centreline miles causes cost to
  • November 21, 2012
    Transportation hub the centre of sustainable urban development
    A marriage of transit, technology and culture is taking shape in Minneapolis, with ITS systems vital to hopes for a sustainable development centred on a hub of public transportation. Construction started in July this year on ‘The Interchange’ – a station in the Midwest US city of Minneapolis claimed as the most spectacular expression yet of the fast-spreading North American concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). Due for completion in 2014, the Interchange is designed as a multi-modal public transpor
  • April 5, 2024
    Keolis wins mass transit contracts in Lyon and Nîmes
    Six-year deals in French cities include bus, trolleybus and on-demand operations
  • July 23, 2012
    Radar effective as detection tool for hard shoulder running
    Navtech Radar's millimetric-wave systems are being researched on the M42 in England to look into how this type of detector can assist in the opening of the hard shoulder as an additional running lane. Here, the company's Stephen Clark talks about the technology being used. In England, the Highways Agency's (the HA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport) Managed Motorways system - formerly called Active Traffic Management - uses electronic signs and signals mounted on gantries to direct drivers