After a £40 million major upgrade by Metronet Rail, delivering faster journey times, a more reliable service and, ultimately, more passenger capacity.
The entire railway environment on the 108-year-old line, from journey times to station facilities, has been greatly enhanced for passengers. Specifically this provides:
* quicker journey times
* A smoother ride
* Smarter, more secure trains – all 20 carriages were lifted out and transported 170 miles to Doncaster for refurbishment including the installation of a CCTV system
* Smarter station platforms – redecorated with new livery, badges and decals
* More reliable trains – a separate power supply to the depot will enable 24-hour maintenance

Journey times are now at least 30 seconds faster on the round trip. From November, this will be used to introduce another two trains per hour, improving capacity by 2,000 passengers per hour.

A new service control system, to be commissioned early next year, will allow five trains to operate instead of four, further improving the timetable and delivering in total 20-25% more rush hour trains.

Stephen Hall, Chief Programmes Officer for Metronet, said: “Passengers today clearly appreciated the quality of what we have delivered. The station platforms are significantly better and the trains are vastly improved. The ride before was jolting and is now smooth and journeys are more reliable. Speed restrictions have been removed and from early next year rush-hour capacity will be increased by up to 25 per cent.

“The upgrade has been a complex project, completed within a challenging timescale. The task was made harder by the fact the line is physically isolated from the rest of the Underground – most materials and equipment could only be lifted in and out of the underground depot. In total, there were 14,000 separate crane lifts.”

Track
Metronet and its principal contractor Balfour Beatty Rail has renewed all the tunnelled track between the two stations, replacing wooden sleepers with concrete and old rail with new. A huge amount of work has gone into its design to ensure the best ride possible within the constraints of the 108-year-old tunnels. Coupled with the concrete sleepers is a new track drainage system, which together will reduce signal failures from the water that seeps in.

Signalling
Metronet has also renewed the signal equipment rooms, modified trackside signalling equipment and is installing a new service control system which will allow all five trains to operate instead of four. This is expected to deliver a 20-25 per cent improvement in capacity when the system is commissioned, early next year.

Trains
The trains have been painted in the Underground's distinctive red, white and blue livery and seats reupholstered and sagging frames and springs replaced. Grab rails and grab poles have been recoated in the light turquoise colour of the line and scratched and scored windows replaced and anti-graffiti film applied. CCTV cameras have been fitted throughout.

Station platforms
Floors have been skimmed and polished, seats have been redecorated and the tiling repaired. There are new signs, freshly painted walls and ceilings and – at Bank – display boards to end the frustration of not knowing from which platform the next train will depart.

As part of the job, engineers disposed of:
3,806 tonnes spoil
2,515 timber sleepers
9,000m old rail
4,500m old conductor rail

… and they installed:
5,650 sleepers
9,076m rail (113lb flat bottom)
1,482m check rail (used on small radius curves to prevent derailment)
4,450m third rail
2,870 insulator pots
685m3 concrete
900 signal relays
11 train stops
9 position detectors
23 point sets
11 signal post telephones