Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the cost of creating an automated underground system in London; and what would be the net effect on the public purse of creating such a system.

Various levels of automation currently operate across the underground network. Automatically driven trains operate on the Central, Jubilee, Northern and Victoria lines. On some lines, full automation may not be possible due to physical infrastructure limitations.

A decision to fully automate any Underground line, or the entire network, would not be made solely on the net effect on the public purse, but on the net effect of the costs and benefits. This would include consideration of financial costs, but also the constraints of existing Underground physical infrastructure, customer service and operational models.