Transport for London formally announced Bombardier Transportation as the winner of the GBP 354 million contract to upgrade signalling on London Underground's Sub-Surface Lines on June 14, following the statutory standstill period required under EU tendering rules. The company had been named preferred bidder on April 12.

Bombardier will provide its Cityflo 650 moving block communication-based train control for the large-profile Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, which form 40% of the LU network, carry 1•3 million passengers/day and include the world's oldest underground railway.

Bombardier said the contract covers 310 track-km, 113 stations, the 191 S-Stock trainsets it is supplying, 49 engineering trains and six heritage trains.

Installation will be completed by 2018, with a two year warranty period. TfL said Bombardier is 'committed to installing and testing the new signalling system without any need for weekend closures' although there will be closures for track and platform works.

Cityflo 650 is in use on 13 metro lines, including Shenzhen Line 3 and Madrid lines 1 and 6, where a 30% increase in passenger carrying capacity is claimed. Bombardier's main project office will be in London, with support and equipment from Bangkok, Helsinki, Madrid, Pittsburgh, Plymouth, Derby and Reading.

TfL said that the overall SSL upgrade programme will increase capacity on the District Line by 24% to 50 000 passengers/h, on the Metropolitan Line by 27% to 44 500 passengers per hour and on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines by 65% to 43 500 passengers per hour.

(Sourced from www.steelframing.org)