The 180 million passengers who use the Victoria line each year are now being served by a full fleet of brand new trains, following the successful phasing out of the old 1960’s stock.
The new higher capacity trains are more accessible with wider doors and more spaces for wheelchair users, and on-board audio and visual electronic information for hard of hearing and visually impaired passengers.
They also feature CCTV in every carriage and are a crucial part of the upgrade of the line.
Once work to remove the old signalling is complete next year the upgrade will mean a 21% increase in capacity – the equivalent of space for an extra 10,000 passengers per hour.
The completion of the roll-out of the new stock comes forty years after the Victoria line was completed from Victoria to Brixton in July 1971.
The line was the first automated train line in the world and, with its ticket barriers and special new ticket machines – it was ahead of its time.
The first section of it opened in September 1968 from Walthamstow Central through to Highbury & Islington.
The second section which included King’s Cross St. Pancras, Euston and Warren Street, opened in December 1968.
The line was officially opened in March 1969 when the line arrived at Oxford Circus, Green Park and Victoria Underground stations – declared open by the Queen who travelled in the driver’s cab as well as sitting in a Tube train carriage.
However the Victoria line was not completed through to Vauxhall, Stockwell and Brixton until two years later.
David Waboso, London Underground’s Capital Programmes Director said:
“This is an upgrade we have inherited from the PPP, which we have managed so it is now well ahead of its contractual schedule of being completed by 2013.
“It is fitting that as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Victoria line being completed to Brixton we now have such a huge improvement for passengers in the form of a fleet of new trains running virtually every two minutes.
“In two months we will be running an additional two trains per hour for a large part of the week, with further increases to come starting next spring when we’ll be running 30 trains every hour ahead of the Olympics.
“When the upgrade is complete we will have provided capacity for an additional ten thousand passengers each hour – meaning better, less crowded, journeys.”
