Recently, the Central line has been in the news for a variety of reasons. First that the red tube line is due a massive £500 million makeover with the promise of new trains. Two, the line has been facing severe delays and disruption so much so that an ’emergency timetable’ was introduced in February. And now once again, we come bearing bad news.
Passengers using the Central line are unlikely to see improvements any time soon – with delays to the introduction of refurbed trains being pushed to the end of the year.
As reported in the Evening Standardonly one refurbished train has re-entered the service under the £500 million Central line improvement programme (Clip) with a second one due in weeks.
However, a new timetable improving train frequencies is likely to be ready by December which means Central line users have a couple more rough months to bear as there no immediate plans to tackle the large intervals of waits of up to 20 minutes on the red line’s Hainault journey.
This is Transport for London’s first year into its five-year Clip programme which aims to extend the life of the 30-year-old trains with promises to fit new motors, seating and lighting and additionally, on board CCTV.
It has already been a rocky month for Central line users with regular severe delays since November 2023which has largely been down to a shortage of trains. In February of this year, TfL announced that the red line will run on an ‘emergency timetable’which will mean around 30% fewer trains during rush hour.
TfL commissioner Andy Lord apologised to passengers for almost a year of delays and overcrowding that has come from the shortage of trains. Where many of the trains trains had to be taken out of service at short notice to replace the burned-out motors. In addition to five trains going under renovation at the same time.
