Jubilee Line upgrade on course for spring finish

Transport for London announced yesterday that a key milestone has been reached in the hugely delayed Jubilee Line upgrade project, putting the improved service on course to open in spring 2011. When complete, it should deliver more frequent and reliable trains and mean an end to weekend closures.

Here's the TfL announcement:

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has announced that significant progress has been made with signalling upgrades on the Jubilee Line, part of much needed investment to provide extra capacity on the Capital's Tube network.

The new state-of-the-art automatic signalling system is now in use on much of the Jubilee line, with all Jubilee line trains using the system during passenger service.

Once the system is fully installed and the upgrade is complete in spring of this year customers will see great improvements with faster and more reliable trains. Capacity will be boosted by 33 per cent – the equivalent of carrying around 5,000 extra passengers each hour and journey times will also be reduced by 22 per cent.

When Transport for London acquired Tube Lines, the contractor for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, in June last year the upgrade was well behind schedule but since then London Underground (LU) has been working hard to complete the upgrade. The new signalling system already operates between Stratford and Dollis Hill, and work is underway to extend its operation across the whole line.