The London Underground 2009 Stock is a type of London Underground train built by Bombardier as part of its Movia family at its Derby Litchurch Lane Works, England. A total of 47 eight-car trains have been built for the Victoria line. They entered service between July 2009 and June 2011 and replaced the 1967 Tube Stock. It is the first new deep level tube stock on the Underground network since the 1996 Stock entered service on the Jubilee line in 1997.
Background
The Victoria line is the most intensively used line on the Underground, in terms of the average number of journeys per kilometre. In the early 2000s, the reliability of service on the line was decreasing due to the age of the 1960s-era Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system, and the 1967 Stock used on the line.
Following the implementation of the London Underground Public Private Partnership in 2003, the Metronet consortium responsible for the infrastructure on the Victoria line began work on a substantial upgrade of the line. As part of the consortium, Bombardier Transportation would design, build and maintain the new rolling stock.
In the 1990s, London Underground designed an open gangway "Space Train" with walk through carriages to increase capacity in the deep level tube. However, due to the technical risk and financial risk of not meeting the PPP contract requirements, Metronet ordered conventional trains from Bombardier in 2003, which were originally planned to enter service in 2006 at a cost of £750million.
Design and pre-production delays
The design of the trains was finalised in September 2004. Manufacture of two pre-production trains began in early 2005, with the first scheduled to be completed by mid-2006. In February 2006, Metronet announced that the first of the pre-production cars had been completed in preparation for static testing. From 21 July to 4 August 2006, a mock-up of the train was on show at Euston Square Gardens, near Euston Square station, for a customer acceptance test followed by public display.
From September 2006, the first pre-production train underwent testing at Bombardier's manufacturing and test site at Derby Litchurch Lane Works. Delays meant that the first pre-production train was not delivered to London until May 2007. Testing, training and familiarisation work could then begin. Throughout the late 2000s, installation and testing of the new "Distance to Go" signalling system for the new trains was being installed on the existing line.
Metronet, the private consortium responsible for the infrastructure on the Victoria line, collapsed in July 2007 due to financial difficulties. Following negotiations with Bombardier, Transport for London took ownership of Metronet in May 2008, allowing for the upgrade to continue.
Production and introduction into service
The second pre-production train was expected to begin trial running in full passenger service in July 2008. This date slipped twice, first to January 2009 and then to July 2009. The train entered service on 21 July 2009, leaving Northumberland Park depot at 23:00 and forming the 23:55 service between and .
Main production at Derby Litchurch Lane Works commenced at the end of 2009. One train entered passenger service every two weeks from February 2010. By mid-2011, there was a sufficient number of trains in service to allow the withdrawal of the few remaining 1967 Stock trains, the last of which ran on 30 June 2011. By July 2011, the full fleet of 2009 Stock trains were in service.
Issues during introduction to service
During the introduction of the trains, various teething issues with the new trains caused disruption on the line. During the morning rush hour on 21 July 2010, a train broke down at , and ambulances had to be called in to rescue almost 3,000 trapped passengers. Five days later, on 26 July 2010, another morning rush-hour train broke down at , causing all Victoria line services to be temporarily suspended. Transport for London cited software failures and over-sensitive door sensors as the main causes of both problems. Subsequent analysis has used the analogy of the bathtub curve to explain the large number of early issues with the trains.
Most frequent service in UK
By the mid 2010s, the trains and signalling system were displaying exceptional levels of reliability, with the 2009 Stock travelling around six times further between failures than the 1967 Stock. A subsequent series of upgrades to the signalling system and track work allowed for an increase to frequency of service to up to 36 trains per hour, the most frequent in the UK and one of the most frequent in Europe. This was assisted by Metronet having ordered a larger train fleet than required.