London Underground: S Stock
This weekend marked the first passenger journey of London Underground's new S-Stock class of train. A vast improvement on the current trains, these trains are part of the massive modernisation program that is currently being undertaken across the LU network. Exampls of the upgrades include;
- Air conditioning
- Regenerative breaking
- Faster (and more comfortable) acceleration and decceleration
- Walk-through carriages
- Higher frequencies (although this coincides with the rollout of modern signalling that I believe is behind schedule)
- Higher capacity seating
- CCTV throughout
There are two sub-categories of S Stock trains;
- The S-7 series trains consist of 7 carriages and have longitudinal seating and will be used on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines
- The S-8 series trains consist of 8 carriages and have a mix of longitudinal and transverse seating; the below pictures are of S-8 series trains - these will be seen on the Metropolitan Line
Due to the potential of the rolling stock being used across the entire sub-surface fleet, the seating upholestry has been designed to represent all of the sub-surface lines that the new trains will be seen on;
- Green = District Line
- Pink = Hammersmith & City Line
- Purple = Metropolitan Line
- Yellow = Circle Line
The order is for a total of 191 trains or the equivalent of 1,395 carriages (133 x S7 trains; 58 x S8 trains); and will be delivered over the next three years. For comparison of the size of the order, Singapore's MTR system has a heavy rail fleet of 1,050 carriages, while Hong Kong's MRT system has 1,800 carriages.
• Video Link
Images taken by
londonstuff @ flickr.com. Images and some of the text sourced from
iampuking at SSC.