Our diverse portfolio for London Underground ranges from track design for line upgrades to human factors support on system integration to development of best practice standards
Mott MacDonald has been continuously helping develop London ’s underground infrastructure for over a century – from the Twopenny Tube in the early 1900s to strategic elements of the Victoria Line in the 1960s and the Jubilee Line Extension in the 1990s.

We’ve also had a key design and construction role for London Underground on tunnels and stations on the City branch of the Northern Line from Euston to Morden and on the Central Line from Notting Hill to Stratford – as well as providing design and supervision services for stations and draught relief facilities on the Piccadilly, District and Circle Lines. Our trackwork portfolio includes working on resilient tube slab track to develop an improved system in the deep level tube lines – where we also helped London Underground develop a strategy to enhance thermal comfort for passengers and staff.

Our portfolio of current/newly-completed assignments for TfL includes:

Cooling the Tube

London Underground’s Cooling the Tube project – involving a number of schemes to improve ventilation and temperatures on both trains and stations – has been given a high priority, particularly with respect to passenger comfort. Mott MacDonald has been commissioned to carry out the outline design and cost estimate to RIBA C level for Victoria Station. In order to lower the temperature this design involves a mixture of civil engineering, electrical and mechanical works which will support the first submission of the overall business case.

White City development

Mott MacDonald is providing a range of services for London Underground on the White City development comprising a major new shopping centre and new public transport infrastructure which will include a new Hammersmith and City line station, refurbishment of Shepherd’s Bush station and new underground sidings. As part of our role providing technical assistance and advice for engineering services associated with the new sidings and station refurbishment programme, we’re helping London Underground in assessing designs submitted for projects and advising on their suitability for acceptance. Our remit includes electrical, lifts, mechanical, public health and fire engineering services.

Northern, Central and SSL traction power simulations

We’ve been conducting detailed simulations to help London Underground determine if any traction power upgrades are necessary to run the new timetable on the Northern Line. We’ve also been conducting multi-train simulations of the Central Line to assess various timetables and operating conditions, as well as traction power simulations of the sub surface lines (SSL) to propose the necessary traction power upgrades for new rolling stock.

We simulate rail systems using TRAIN, our PC-based program developed in house to simulate traction power and train performance. TRAIN serves as a complete analysis package to determine rolling stock fleet size, scheduling of train services, energy and power consumption and electrical traction system parameters.

Standards development and audit

We assist in developing and auditing standards to enable London Underground to manage its assets in line with the requirements of the PPP contracts and in accordance with good practice procedures. Having undertaken two projects to review existing civil engineering and infrastructure protection standards and procedures and create a new suite of LUL standards that retain corporate knowledge and incorporate good industry practice, we’ve been continuing our work on reviews to understand the InfraCos position with respect to their progress and ability to comply with the three systems standards (Systems Engineering, Human Factors and Electromagnetic Compatibility).

In developing the new suite of Category 1 standards for civil engineering and infrastructure protection, our multi-disciplinary team was responsible for reviewing asset management strategies and standards produced by Railway Safety and Standards Board, Network Rail, Highways Agency and London Underground, as well as reviewing British and European standards, Network Rail and Highways Agency codes of practice and good practice guidance. We also undertook the technical authoring for all of LU’s Civil Engineering standards (including bridge structures, bored tunnels and shafts, building and station structures, pumps and drainage and earth structures) and Infrastructure Protection standards (including outside party work protection, condition surveys of LU property, topographical surveys and mapping and property issues).

The work involved carrying out interviews with engineers within Network Rail, the Railway Safety and Standards Board, the LU Infraco’s (Metronet and Tube Lines) and the Highways Agency. A unified approach to managing and controlling the production of the new standards was possible by employing specialised database software - DOORS. This requirements and interfaces management tool ensured full integrity of data and meets the essential requirement of providing a comprehensive audit trail and full traceability from existing LU standards to the new suite of Category 1 Standards

EMC co-ordination and technical advice

One of our specialists has been seconded to provide support to the Chief Engineer's Directorate in London Underground regarding the operation of the signalling and control systems safety acceptance panel. This includes liaison with third parties seeking acceptance from LU, review of documents submitted for approval and management of the review process within LU and the Infracos.

Metro rack survey

We’ve been working on an assignment to undertake a survey of existing metro rack locations and assess the proposed changes to rack locations. This includes investigating delivery logistics and health and safety issues and preparing a report to LU detailing our findings.