TfL explains how it plans to sort out Central line issues as passengers face delays 'for weeks'

The London Underground

Transport for London (TfL) has said that disruption on the Central line, which has seen hefty delays due to a shortage of trains, is likely to continue for weeks. The authority has also laid out what it is doing to try and rectify the situation.

A report to the board published last week states that changes have been made to how officials get hold of new motors, as more than predicted are failing on the 30-year-old stock. Replacing them is a complicated process, bosses add, that involves elevating trains at TfL’s depots.

The document reads: “We would like to apologise for the disruption to customer service being experienced on our Central line services. We are experiencing an abnormally high number of motor failures that has required us to take a high number of trains out of service.”

They added: “Our engineers are urgently working to repair and overhaul the damaged motors, but this is a complex process undertaken by highly skilled, specialist technicians and the removal and refitting of every motor requires the 30-year-old train to be split into separate sections and the affected cars lifted. Alongside the repair work, we have put in place additional arrangements to increase our supply of spare motors”.

This, it is thought, will enable the stock to start to rebuild some ‘resilience’ and improve services ‘over the coming weeks’. This would require reducing the number of trains out of service, meaning engineers can return trains to service more quickly, My London reports.

Officials added: “While this should help improve services for customers, the motor failures are still occurring at a higher rate than we have seen before so some disruption to normal service levels is likely to continue. We are continuing to work urgently to identify further solutions.”

It comes after Sadiq Khan blamed the issues on the Government. He told MyLondon on January 29: “I want to apologise to all those using Central line service who’ve received a service less than it should be […] This year, [the Government] only gave us a fraction of the expenditure we’re going to do over the next year.

“We are spending money refurbishing the Central line trains. But, I’m afraid this is a consequence of a lack of investment in capital from the Government.”

This was rebuffed by the Department for Transport (DfT). A spokesperson said: “The Government has provided more than £6.6bn of support to TfL since 2020 – including the most recent injection of £250m in capital funding in December 2023. As transport is devolved, it is for the Mayor of London to deliver services in the capital and explain how his decisions are funded.”