Siemens to build new London Tube trains
LONDON - Reuters
A division of Germany’s Siemens has been awarded a contract worth about 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) to design and build 94 new trains for the Piccadilly Line on London’s metropolitan train network, known as the Tube.
Transport for London (TfL), the public body in charge of the Tube, said the award of the contract would allow Siemens Mobility Limited to push ahead with its plan to build a new factory in Goole, east Yorkshire, in northern England.
“The Siemens Mobility Limited factory would employ up to 700 people in skilled engineering and manufacturing roles, plus up to an additional 250 people during the construction phase of the factory,” TfL said in a statement.
“As a result, around 1,700 indirect jobs would be created throughout the U.K. supply chain,” it said on June 16.
While the order is for an initial 94 trains for the Piccadilly Line, TfL said the contract was being awarded on the expectation that the manufacturer would also build trains of the same design for three other so-called Deep Tube lines.
The Piccadilly Line, which carries more than 700,000 passengers per day, is the first of the four Deep Tube lines to receive a much-needed upgrade.
The new trains, expected to be delivered from 2023, will be 6 meters longer than the existing ones and will be designed to optimize space within the constraints of the narrow Deep Tube tunnels. The 86 trains currently running were introduced in 1975.
