The wider £5.5bn scheme to improve the Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines will come to an end in 2029
A London Underground line is set to get faster in January 2027 after vital improvements to one of the most complex parts of the network. A revamp of the Metropolitan line signalling system between Finchley Road and Preston Road this month already means trains are travelling one minute faster through the area.
As a result of this, Transport for London has confirmed plans to introduce a new timetable in January 2027, while a service uplift to 30 trains an hour through Central London is expected in 2028.
These improvements are part of the wider £5.5bn ‘Four Lines Modernisation Project’ which is a major overhaul of the Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines.
New walkthrough trains with CCTV and air conditioning were rolled out in the 2010s in the first stage of the scheme.
The project is now centred on replacing outdated signalling systems, some dating back to the 1940s, with automated or improved processes.
So far nine out of 15 signalling projects along different parts of the four lines have been completed.
Agenda papers for the TfL Programme and Investments Committee state upgrades between Preston Road and Moor Park on the Metropolitan line, and between both Fulham Broadway and East Putney, and Barons Court and Stamford Brook on the District line will be completed next – leading to faster journey times.
The completion of the overall project has been delayed from 2027 to 2028 due to the complexity of signalling revamps on the Metropolitan line north of Moor Park and northwest of West Harrow to Uxbridge.
This is because of difficulties integrating it with the Piccadilly line and Chiltern Railway services which use the same track.
The whole £5.54m project is expected to come to an end in 2029 once software optimisations are complete, some 14 years after it began in July 2015.
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