At 52 years old, the trains on the Bakerloo line are the oldest running passenger trains in the UK. And you certainly tell. While many passengers might enjoy their vintage vibes, most Londoners would agree that they’ve served their time. Now Andy Lord, commissioner of Transport for London, has said that new trains could be running on the Bakerloo line ‘before the turn of the decade’.
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If government funds can be secured, Lord wants the new fleet to follow behind the brand new trains currently being built for the Piccadilly line. Like the new Piccadilly carriages, they would be walk-through and air-conditioned with CCTV.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, backs the idea but in order for it to go through, it has to get approval for long-term capital funding from the transport secretary and chancellor. If that happens, Lord is hopeful that the brown line could see a new fleet in action within the next five or six years. The news comes at the same time as the Bakerloo line gets one step closer to an £8 billion extension.
Speaking to journalists at the Siemens factory in Yorkshire (where the Piccadilly trains are being made), Khan added: ‘We have been patching and mending [the Bakerloo line trains] for the past 10, 15, 20 years but those trains were past their ‘use date’ 20 years ago. We need to make sure they are replaced as soon as possible.’
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