Transport for London blames ‘our main contractor to build the required depot going into administration’
Sir Sadiq Khan has spent an estimated £942 million on new trains for London – yet almost all of them are stuck in Spain.
New rolling stock for the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is supposed to start operating in passenger service by this spring, eight years after it was first ordered.
But 36 of the 40 trains built to date are languishing in the factory of CAF, their Spanish maker, because there is not enough room for them in London.
A total of 54 have been ordered to replace the current DLR trains, which are reaching the end of their 30-year service lives.
Transport for London (TfL), chaired by the London Mayor, blamed “our main contractor to build the required depot going into administration” last year.
Buckingham Group collapsed while owing a reported £103 million to creditors in 2023, with a spokesman telling the BBC at the time that “extreme inflation linked to the Ukraine conflict” was the cause.
In addition to a high-profile contract to renovate Liverpool FC’s Anfield stadium, Buckingham Group was also responsible for building an extension to the DLR’s Beckton depot, in east London.
Those works grinding to a halt have delayed the introduction of the new trains because there is not enough space to run the old and new fleets side by side, TfL said.
Testing was also delayed after one of the new trains skidded through a stop signal during “low adhesion conditions” in November 2023.
While nobody was injured, engineers later realised that other trains carrying passengers could potentially do the same thing – forcing authorities to temporarily pause trials while they lowered speed limits on other parts of the DLR network.
Meanwhile, the cost of the London light rail network’s new trains has jumped by almost £100 million over the last eight months – up from £880 million last June to £942 million.
The latest increase of £35 million was reported to Transport for London’s programmes and investment committee in December, following a £61 million jump last summer.
A TfL spokesman said: “We’re introducing 54 new trains to replace the 33 oldest trains in our fleet, some of which are more than 30 years old.
“The new trains will help us to improve the frequency and reliability of services and support population and employment growth across the network, particularly in parts of the Royal Docks and the Isle of Dogs where the DLR is the main transport option.
“These trains are being kept in storage in Spain while we wait for them to come into service. The delay in them coming to the UK was partially due to the signalling issues but also a result of our main contractor to build the required depot going into administration.
“We’re working hard to ensure they come into service as quickly as possible and before the end of this year.”
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