A look at the new, air-conditioned Piccadilly line trains coming this year
Key Points
- New trains are coming to the Piccadilly line this year, with walk-through carriages and digital information screens.
- The trains will be the first to operate on the Deep Tube network with air conditioning.
- Closures are expected on the Piccadilly line in the coming months as the network is prepared for the rollout, but once the new fleet is launched, service frequency on the line will improve.
Brand-new trains will begin to roll out to the Piccadilly line in London from December 2026, Transport for London (TfL) has announced.
The new trains will replace the existing rolling stock that currently operates on the Piccadilly line, which has been in operation since 1975.
Work is needed to ready the track for the new trains, however, and TfL has warned that there will be regular disruption on the Piccadilly line in the coming months as it prepares to add its new trains to the network.
Disruptions will largely be limited to weekends, when parts of the Piccadilly line will be closed for upgrade work and testing.
The new trains are longer than the current ones and have different door placements, which means 119 Piccadilly line platforms will need to be changed to prepare for the rollout of the new rolling stock.
“Introducing a new fleet of trains is a huge engineering and logistical feat which inevitably requires upgrades and intensive testing,” said TfL Chief Capital Officer Stuart Harvey.
“Although much of the hard work goes on behind the scenes, there are times when we need to close sections of the railway to ensure that these pioneering new trains can operate effectively and interact correctly with a wide range of complex infrastructure.”
“We are very confident that once this intensive period of upgrades and testing is completed, and the new trains start to enter service, our customers will reap the benefits of moving around the capital on these game-changing new trains,” Harvey said.
The new Piccadilly line trains
Like the newer trains operating on the Elizabeth line, the trains coming to the Piccadilly line will feature walk-through carriages, wider doorways, and air conditioning. This marks the first time that air conditioning will be fitted to trains operating on the Deep Tube network.
Supplied by Siemens Mobility, the trains feature a strikingly modern design and will have real-time digital display screens within the carriages for customer information, as well as on-board CCTV cameras.
Each new train is lighter than the model currently operating on the Piccadilly line, consumers less energy, and provides 10% more capacity.
As a result of the increased fleet size, the frequency of services running on the line will also increase to one train every 135 seconds.
Siemens and TfL have already put the new train through its paces, running a test in Germany to demonstrate its acceleration and braking capabilities, and to monitor its noise and vibration levels.
The trains were also tested to endure ‘extreme weather conditions’, including ambient temperatures of from -15°C to 40°C and winds of up to 100km/h.
The new trains will start rolling out to the Piccadilly line from December 2026, with the full migration expected to be completed by June 2027.
Below are photos of the new Siemens trains coming to the Piccadilly line.
