Enfield MP learns how digital signalling will make Great Northern’s City route more reliable for rail passengers

High-tech digital signalling is set to give rail passengers from Enfield Chase, Winchmore Hill, Grange Park, Palmers Green and Bowes Park much more reliable services on the Great Northern route to the City of London, local MP Bambos Charalambous heard on Friday (6 May).

The MP for Enfield Southgate was visiting Great Northern’s train maintenance depot in Hornsey where he learned how the operator and its parent company Govia Thameslink Railway have worked with Network Rail, Siemens and other industry experts to replace ageing signalling on the Northern City Line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate stations.

The work, which was completed over the early May Bank Holiday, is part of the Government-funded East Coast Digital Programme which will see traditional signals removed from alongside the tracks. Drivers will instead take direction from signals digitally relayed to the screens inside their train cabs.

This will boost reliability and reduce delays, creating a more modern and reliable railway for passengers. The Northern City Line is expected to be fully digitally signalled by 2024.

Mr Charalmbous took one of the Class 717 Moorgate ‘trains’ for a spin, from the seat of a training simulator. Great Northern’s engineers, who are responsible for maintaining the fleet, then showed him the inside of a real-life cab of a Class 717 Moorgate train, already fitted with digital signalling equipment.

He also met the latest cohort of trainee drivers, recruited by Great Northern to bolster its driver community to enable drivers to be released for vital training in the new technology, from January 2023.

Bambos Charalambous, MP for Enfield and Southgate, said:
“I am delighted to learn more about the much-needed investment in a key route for passengers in Enfield and Southgate to travel into London. Today’s visit has been a fascinating ‘behind-the-scenes’ insight into the amount of work that goes into delivering a programme like this, to ensure our railways are fit for the future.

“It has also been a pleasure to meet a number of Govia Thameslink’s newest recruits, starting their careers in the rail industry.”

Govia Thameslink Railway project lead Matthew Teller said:
“It was a real pleasure showing Bambos this new technology that the railway industry is deploying to transform reliability for our customers between Finsbury and Moorgate stations. I’m pleased he took a turn on the simulator as well – it’s no easy task driving a train!”

ENDS