UK: London Underground has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to replace the DC traction motors on the 85 eight-car 1992 Stock trainsets used on the Central Line with its Mitrac AC traction and control equipment.
This is expected to reduce energy consumption while improving reliability and performance. The contract running to 2024 is worth £112·1m, including ongoing maintenance support, and has been awarded as part of London Underground’s wider Central Line Improvement Programme.
‘The Central line is one of the busiest and most important lines’, said London Underground Managing Director Mark Wild when the contract was announced on August 25. ‘We are making a number of improvements to reduce delays and make the line more reliable for our customers. Installing new motors is one of the most important parts of this work, and will mean we can deliver a more reliable service to our customers, which will in turn boost capacity.’
The project will be led from Bombardier's Västerås site in Sweden. Installation on the first trainset as well as associated integration works and testing will be undertaken at Bombardier's Derby site.
The contract win was ‘a ringing endorsement of our traction system business, following Mitrac’s strong performance on other London Underground lines’, said Richard Hunter, Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation UK.
