London Underground 1995 Stock

1995 Stock
The London Underground 1995 Stock is a type of rolling stock used on the Northern line of the London Underground. There are 106 six-car trains in operation; they entered service between June 1998 and April 2001 replacing old 1959 Stock and (Mark 1) 1972 Stock.

It used to be operated mainly with a combined power controller, brake lever and dead man's handle at the driver's right hand. When the train is stopped the top of the handle is turned away from the position in which the driver holds it. To depart the driver turned the top of the handle and pushed the red lever forward. However, London Underground introduced TBTC on the Northern line in sections since June 2013. The entire line became TBTC driven in June 2014.

Starting in 2013, the 1995 Stock underwent refurbishment, some 15 years after being introduced. Internally, new flooring was fitted, with contrasting colours in the doorways, and the yellow grab rails were re-painted dark blue. The new standard London Underground "Barman" moquette was also introduced, and wheelchair backboards were installed in the trailer cars. The external door open/close buttons were plated over, and the internal buttons were replaced by a visual door open/close warning light. The windows were polished to remove graffiti, and the external livery was re-applied. The refurbishment was carried out by Alstom, and the first refurbished train entered service on 30 May 2013. All 106 refurbished trains had entered service by 13 April 2015.

1995 stock was operated by Tube Lines / London Underground Ltd (LUL), but is now provided under a Service Provision contract through Northern line Service Provision Ltd (NLSP), an Alstom venture. Maintenance is carried out by Alstom Transport Ltd at Golders Green Traincare Centre in north-west London, behind Golders Green station, and at Morden Traincare Centre in south-west London. There are also "outbases" such as Edgware, High Barnet and Highgate and station fitters based at Kennington and Euston.

1996 Stock
The London Underground 1996 stock is a type of rolling stock used on the Jubilee line of the London Underground. The trains were built by GEC Alsthom-Metro Cammell (now Alstom) and entered service in 1997. The trains are very similar to the 1995 Stock used on the Northern line.

The original 59 trains were initially operated in a 6-car formation, however in 2005 an additional trailer car was added to lengthen each train to 7 cars. At the same time, four additional 7-car trains were ordered, bringing the total to 63 7-car trains.

The stock was bought for the opening of the Jubilee Line Extension (JLE) from Green Park to Stratford. The original plan was to refurbish 1983 stock with the same exterior and interior as 1996 stock, even with double doors, but it proved too expensive. However, the opening of the JLE was delayed, and the 1996 stock replaced 1983 stock between Christmas Eve 1997 and July 1998, over a year before the JLE opened. Additionally, the Silver Line was opened in 2000, and they used 1996 Stock that was ordered in 1997 and were delivered in between March 1999 and September 2000.

In early 2005 London Underground announced that it would add a seventh car to each train and four new trains. The original factory on the Barcelona sea front had been closed, and the new stock was manufactured in Alstom's new factory at Santa Perpètua de Mogoda in the Barcelona suburbs. The four new trains were built as six-car trains and modified to seven-car configuration at Stratford Depot.

From 25 December 2005 the line was closed for completion of the conversion to seven cars, including signalling alterations and software modification to the platform-edge doors. The original plan was to hard-wire two cars together so that the onboard computer would "see" them as one car, but this proved unnecessary. Since the stock was designed as six-car sets with the ability to add a seventh car, platforms were already long enough for seven-car trains and platform-edge doors had been built with space for a seventh car. The line was scheduled to close for five days, but the work was completed ahead of schedule and the line reopened two days early. The new car is a trailer car in the "odd" unit, with design designation "G". An example of a seven-car train set would be 96117, 96317, 96717, 96517, 96518, 96318, 96118 (the seventh car in bold.)

The trains were originally delivered with seats with a mauve and grey moquette. They formed the letter J for Jubilee (the Northern line's moquette formed the letter N). This was replaced in November 2005 with the new dark blue Tube Lines moquette with multi-coloured and multi-size hollow squares, introduced at the same time on the 1973 and 1995 stock. At the same time, the purple armrests were repainted blue to match the new seats. However, the four additional trains delivered in 2005 were delivered with the original moquette and armrests, and remained in this condition for several years.

In 2012, the new Barman moquette was introduced on all units, prior to the 2012 Olympics.

Starting in 2014, the external LCD destination displays were replaced with LED units, manufactured by Focon. The new units use orange text, instead of the original yellow.

Starting in 2017, the 1996 stock underwent refurbishment, some 20 years after first being introduced. New flooring was fitted, with contrasting colours and grooves in the doorways. All grab rails were repainted Jubilee line grey, and new wheelchair backboards were provided in some trailer cars. The interior turquoise blue panels were also repainted white. The external door open/close buttons were also plated over. The first refurbished train entered service on 23 February 2017.