Piccadilly line: Severe delays on London Tube route after 'casualty on track' and 'leaf fall' - when will new trains be complete and service returning to normal?
There are severe delays to a major London Tube line due to a “casualty on track” - with services also part-suspended over “leaf fall”.
Transport for London (TfL) has announced this morning (Wednesday 15 January) that there is a part closure and severe delays on the Piccadilly Line. It says: “No service between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge due a shortage of Piccadilly line trains while we fix damage caused by leaf fall. Please use the Metropolitan line to complete your journey.
“No service between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge due a shortage of trains while we fix damage caused by leaf fall. Please use the Metropolitan line to complete your journey. SEVERE DELAYS on the rest of the line due to an earlier customer incident. Tickets are being accepted on local buses, Southwestern, Elizabeth line and London Overground.”
It adds that there is also no service between Kings Cross and Arnos Grove. It has been reported that this is due to a casualty on the track. Commuters hoping to get moving this warning are asked to keep updated on the travel latest - with disruptions on the Thameslink, Overground, and a handful of Tube lines.
-has-asked-Londoners-to-check-before-they-travel-this-weekend.jpeg?crop=3:2,smart&trim=&width=640&quality=65)
The Piccadilly line is also facing severe delays due to ongoing repairs to resolve damage caused by leaf fall - which has been the case for a while recently. Nearly all of the Piccadilly line trains have been affected by "wheel flats" which happen when the brakes are applied and the wheels slide causing erosion.
At the moment, 60 trains are being used on the line, 15 short of the number needed to run a full service. There are 86 trains in the Piccadilly line fleet. The trains on the Piccadilly line are over 50 years old and do not have "anti-slide" technology on their wheels. It is not a new problem, with the line suffering from the same issue in 2016.
Every "wheel flat" has to be smoothed out by a lathe. It takes about a day to repair one train. A new fleet with better braking technology is being tested at the moment and should be in service by the end of 2025.