First sight of new Piccadilly line trains undergoing testing on London Underground

First of 94 new trains spotted during late-night testing in west London.

It is a sight to put a smile on the face of millions of Tube passengers – the first new Piccadilly line train for 50 years being tested on the London Underground.

This exclusive picture, taken by rail professional Jason Cross and republished by The Standard with his permission, shows that Transport for London is making progress in introducing the first of 94 new trains on the line by the end of 2025.

Mr Cross said the picture was taken “in the very small hours” of Sunday March 30 near Ruislip Manor station in west London.

No passengers would have been able to board the new train and it is likely that normal services had ended for the night to enable the track to be used for testing.

The nine-carriage train, which was assembled in the Siemens factory in Vienna, Austria, arrived in London last Autumn for a year of testing before entering passenger service.

TfL is spending almost £3bn on the new fleet of Piccadilly line trains, which are the first “deep level” Tube trains in the capital to have air conditioning and “walk through” carriages.

All 94 – the majority of which will be assembled at Siemens’ new factory in Goole, Yorkshire, will enable peak frequencies on the Piccadilly lineto be increased from 24 to 27 trains an hour.

The line, which connects King’s Cross and the West End with Heathrow airport and beyond, is used for more than 10 per cent of all daily Tube journeys – about 160m trips a year.

Mr Cross is a test train driver, instructor and rail operator at GB Railfreight and the author of the London Underground Guide Book.

Posting the picture on his LinkedIn page, he said: “The future of London Underground’s Piccadilly Line, the 2024 Tube Stock built by Siemens Mobility.

“This is the first of 94 such trains, the majority of which will be built in the UK in a new factory in Goole.

“This first unit, a Vienna built example, has made its first moves on the Underground, and very nice it looks too.

“This picture, taken by me with my camera atop a 10m-high pole from an adjacent street, shows the train passing through Ruislip Manor.”

In a separate post on Instagram, Mr Cross described the train as “London Underground’s new toy”.