Jan 16, 2026

Northern Line Finally Gets Signaling

The Northern line, the oldest on the entire network and considered a heritage line because of this detail, was retrofitted with signaling equipment earlier today. This was to slow the cart down from 10 blk/s to 8 blk/s due to ‘safety concerns’ and to slow down during the approach into the platform and the underwater section. This marks the first works done to the Northern line following the previous attempt to do the same thing in April of last year.

A TfL spokesperson provided the following statement:

“While we did in fact make previous attempts to slow down the carts, this predated the significant advancements in signaling that have come since. We have since worked on Crossrail’s signaling, which also makes use of bi-directional train tracks, and as such we are now more than familiar with the techniques required to pull such a thing off.”