And by 'in the future' they mean today, 13th January 2025, so hurrah for faster journeys.
TfL have been improving the signalling on the four sub-surface lines since 2016, the intention being that we'd see more trains in service travelling more quickly more often. It's been an exceptionally slow project and is by no means complete. But as each new section of signalling is completed TfL introduces a new timetable, eventually, and the next set of timetables is being introduced today, indeed has just gone live.
The catalyst for the new timetables was the completion of signalling upgrades between Stepney Green and Upminster in March 2023. That seems a ridiculously long time ago but it takes time for changes to bed in and for new timetables to be written. District line trains are now being driven automatically in that section, indeed all the way to Earl's Court and a couple of stations beyond. The idea is that computers can drive trains more effectively and efficiently which means the timetable can be a bit tighter, and thus journeys get shorter. But by how much?
n.b. In what follows I'm going to consider off-peak trains around noon because these have pretty consistent running times. Rush hour services are rather more variable, and individual trains may not necessarily match these timings.
You might expect the biggest improvements to be at the eastern end of the District line where the latest signalling upgrades were, so let's see how trains here have speeded up.
Upminster → Whitechapel Last week: 38¾ minutes This week: 37 minutes
Whitechapel → Upminster Last week: 38½ minutes This week: 35¾ minutes
That's good. That's just under two minutes faster heading west and almost three minutes shaved off heading east. In percentage terms that's 5% faster westbound and 8% faster eastbound. Perhaps not enough to notice while you're travelling, particularly because there are fifteen stations between Upminster and Whitechapel, but a significant saving if totted up over a year's commute.
Not many people are masochistic enough to ride the full length of the District line, but if you did here are the off-peak timing changes in today's new timetable.
Ealing Broadway → Upminster Last week: 90½ minutes This week: 85½ minutes
Richmond → Upminster Last week: 88 minutes This week: 83 minutes
That's a five minute improvement for both routes, or 6%. Again that's pretty good for a single timetable change, although it is spread out across a 43-station journey. I've checked back to the timetable in operation 10 years ago and timings were also around the 90 minute mark back then, so this is a genuine step change.
To see where the biggest improvements have been made, here's a westbound journey divided into four parts.
As you can see almost all of the improvement is between Upminster and Barking with mere minor tweaks elsewhere. Again don't take these intervals as gospel throughout the day, they're a lunchtime snapshot.
How about an end-to-end journey on the Hammersmith & City line?
Hammersmith → Barking Last week: 60¾ minutes This week: 58½ minutes
Barking → Hammersmith Last week: 60¼ minutes This week: 59 minutes
The improvement on the Hammersmith & City line isn't so great, mainly because only Stepney Green to Barking is within the zone with recently improved signalling. Percentagewise it's only 2%, all of which could of course be undone by a tediously long wait in the tunnel outside Aldgate East.
The Circle and Metropolitan lines also have new timetables today but I can't see any significant speeding up there.
And before you get too excited, remember that the TfL posters only promised 'faster journeys', not more trains. In fact the number of trains operating on the District line is being cut, this because if trains are running faster you don't need quite so many of them. Previously 74 trains were used in the morning peak, now it's 72. Previously 75 trains were used in the evening peak, now it's 73. Previously 61 trains operated between the peaks, now it's 59. "We're running fewer trains" is not a headline TfL will be crowing about any time soon.
Also, none of this is providing any extra capacity. Trains are still running at exactly the same frequencies as before so if you're waiting to catch one nothing will be arriving sooner. The whole point of the signalling upgrade was meant to be an improvement in frequency allowing more passengers aboard but this still hasn't happened. The Circle line still runs resolutely every 10 minutes, just as it ever did. The Hammersmith & City line also still runs only every 10 minutes. Richmond, Wimbledon and Upminster won't be seeing any additional trains in this new timetable, just trains that reach their destination a bit sooner.
It is thus not as excellent change as it could have been, nor as excellent a change as it should have been, indeed your average punter probably won't notice anything's changed. But technically yes, 'Signalling improvements will mean faster journeys for you', and those slightly faster journeys kick in today.
