Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

TfL completes biggest test yet of new signalling system set to transform the Tube

27/03/2018

26.03.2018 London Underground

Share

Share this article

Facebook

Twitter

Google Plus

LinkedIn

Transport for London (TfL) this weekend expanded testing of the new, modern Tube signalling system, which is set to transform the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, to its largest area yet. The new system was successfully tested from Hammersmith through to Euston Square and Paddington, with the work involving the complex Baker Street junction - the first such junction to be tested with the state-of-the-art Thales Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) system.

Key Points

Trains using the new system were run between Hammersmith, Euston Square and Paddington this weekend

Work means huge capacity and reliability benefits move even closer

Testing at Baker Street junction is the culmination of an extensive period of planning and preparation

Work to transform the worlds oldest metro into one of the most modern is now well underway, and once complete it will improve reliability and boost capacity on 40 per cent of the Tube network. The section between Hammersmith and Edgware Road will be the first to go live on the new system this summer, and will provide better, more accurate real-time customer information and improve reliability. The testing this weekend was conducted from the brand-new control room at Hammersmith Service Control Centre, which will also begin operation this summer.

The new system will be introduced progressively over 14 sections across the network, each improving reliability as it is introduced. Customers will benefit from quicker, more frequent services from 2021, with all four lines using the new system by 2023. The new, modern signalling will allow trains to run closer together, which will increase the frequency of train services across these lines with 32 trains per hour set to operate in the central London section. This will boost capacity by a third across all four lines - equivalent to space for an extra 36,500 customers during the busiest times of day.

This weekend's testing, which was the culmination of an extensive period of planning and preparation of over two years of planning work, allowed TfL to gather information to ensure the system is ready for safe and efficient passenger service later this year. The next stage of the testing work will involve the longer, eight-car S-stock trains used on the Metropolitan line for the first time, and further testing and validation will be conducted in the coming weeks and months.

It's great news that we have been able to start testing on the next section of the network. It shows that our Four Lines Modernisation Project is now moving at pace and our customers will be able to see the benefits of this huge programme soon. This project will make an enormous difference to the journeys of tens of thousands of Londoners and will help us to deliver the Mayor's vision for a greener, healthier city by making those journeys quicker and boosting capacity.

Mark Wild, Managing Director of London Underground

Once again, the fantastic effort of our teams is ensuring continued progress on this significant upgrade of these critical lines. We are now beginning to test in more challenging areas of the network, our advanced signalling system technology and expertise, our knowledge of the network and its complexities, are all coming together ensuring we deliver a world class railway for London.

Shaun Jones, Vice-President, Transport at Thales in the UK The junction at Baker Street is one of four complex junctions on the lines being modernised, with track for the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines all running through the station. Ensuring that the new signals can effectively operate in such a busy location is a crucial step for the project ahead of work at other junctions like Earl's Court and Aldgate.

PDF version

London Tube_Biggest test of new signalling syst

Contact

Thales Media Relations

33 (0)1 57 77 91 60

See the list of our contacts
LINK: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/transportation/press-release/...
See more stories from thales

Most recent headlines

16/12/2025

Stranger Things' Playlist Takeover Challenges Fans to Decode Clues and Unlock Exclusive Volume 2' Content

Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...

16/12/2025

Spotify and NAVER Bring Music Integrations and Premium Benefits to Korea

Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...

16/12/2025

Around the World With Spotify Wrapped: 2025 Fan Destinations You Had to See

2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...

16/12/2025

L3Harris Delivers Most Powerful Thrusters for NASA's Lunar Gateway

Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...

16/12/2025

Palantir and L3Harris: Reindustrializing Defense Through AI-Powered Production

The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...

16/12/2025

NFL Boosts Broadcast, Streaming Viewing Share in November

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

16/12/2025

Spanish Broadcaster Updates Playout With Pebble Solutions

SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...

16/12/2025

Telescript International Buys Prompter Software Company

NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...

16/12/2025

Ookla: T-Mobile Is Fastest Fixed Wireless Access Provider

As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...

16/12/2025

Apple TV App for Android Now Supports Google Cast

Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...

16/12/2025

PT Telkom Satelit Indonesia and Space42 Explore Partnership to Extend 5G Direct-to-Device Services

Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...

16/12/2025

VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 Results of Both VEON and Kyivstar

16 Dec 2025 VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...

16/12/2025

VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acquisition of Solar Power Company

16 Dec 2025 VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...

16/12/2025

Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro Star in Swedish Thriller Series Bytet'

Back to All News Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...

16/12/2025

Docu-reality 'My Korean Boyfriend' Gets a Trailer and Premiere Date: January 1st. Is Real Life Really like a K-drama?

Back to All News Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...

16/12/2025

Czech TV Elevates Video Streaming with Harmonic

Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...

16/12/2025

RT Sport Manager of the Year Nominees 2025 Revealed

RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December. On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...

16/12/2025

Music legend Brian Kennedy revealed as the twelfth and final contestant for Dancing with the Stars 2026

Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...

15/12/2025

Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From The Famous Group

Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...

15/12/2025

2026 Sundance Film Festival Reveals 54 Titles Selected for Short Film Program Presented by Ketel One Vodka

Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...

15/12/2025

L3Harris to Provide Assured Communications for US Air Force's Survivable Airborne Operations Center Program

L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...

15/12/2025

Arkansas TV Ends PBS Affiliation Amid Funding Cuts

CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...

15/12/2025

PMVG Acquires WBPA-LD for WQED Pittsburgh

BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...

15/12/2025

SES and WPDI Win Changing Lives Award, Connecting Youth to Digital Education in South Sudan and Uganda

Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...

15/12/2025

SES, Abra Group Launch Multi-Orbit Inflight Connectivity

Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...

15/12/2025

How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters

How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions LinkedIn Corporate Communications Sha...

15/12/2025

Space42 and Cobham Satcom Redefine L-band Performance with New Portfolio of Thuraya-4 Terminals

Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...

15/12/2025

VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cell Call in Central Asia

15 Dec 2025 VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...

15/12/2025

U&GOLD Reveals Top 10 Topical Christmas Cracker Jokes for 2025!

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...

15/12/2025

Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social

Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...

15/12/2025

NVIDIA Acquires Open-Source Workload Management Provider SchedMD

NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...

15/12/2025

RT.ie Achieves Major Milestone: One Billion Page Views in 2025

RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...

15/12/2025

How to Fine-Tune an LLM on NVIDIA GPUs With Unsloth

Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs. Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...

13/12/2025

YouTube TV to Launch Genre Packages

In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...

13/12/2025

Magna Systems Finishes UHD, IP-based OB Truck For Singapore Network

SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...

12/12/2025

SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Show in NYC

SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...

12/12/2025

Hailey Gates and Alia Shawkat Welcome You to the Village of Atropia

Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...

12/12/2025

Spotify and ATP Tour Launch First Episode of New Video Series

Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...

12/12/2025

Arkansas TV Drops PBS Affiliation Amid Funding Cuts

CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...

12/12/2025

Wisycom and DPA Microphones Appoint Rene Moerch as Group...

Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...

12/12/2025

SMPTE Releases Updated Engineering Report on Artificial I...

SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...

12/12/2025

Keepit and Ingram Micro form strategic relationship in Po...

Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...

12/12/2025

Atomos Enhances FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 with RAW Capabilit...

Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...

12/12/2025

Professional Wireless Systems Provides Comprehensive RF S...

Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...

12/12/2025

AIMS Announces Inaugural IPMX Product Testing and Certifi...

The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...

12/12/2025

DHD Gears for Hamburg Open 2026 with Latest Audio Product...

DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...

12/12/2025

Chaos Brings macOS Support and AI Tools to V-Ray for Blen...

Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...

12/12/2025

UltraLEDs Launches Precision LED Tape for Professional Fi...

Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use. P...