1973 stock withdrawal

[RUK]

An introduction into service date of between December 2026 and June 2027, followed by 18 to 20 months for all trains to come into service, means that the 2024 Stock introduction isn’t currently scheduled to be completed until between June 2028 at the earliest to February 2030, which is presumably around the time when the last 1973 Stock will be retired.

 

[Thirteen]

An introduction into service date of between December 2026 and June 2027, followed by 18 to 20 months for all trains to come into service, means that the 2024 Stock introduction isn’t currently scheduled to be completed until between June 2028 at the earliest to February 2030, which is presumably around the time when the last 1973 Stock will be retired.

I can't imagine they'd keep them all going until 2030.

 

[Alxxxs]

Given how many train enthusiasts there are nowadays, the very last service may may be entirely reserved for them I guess.

 

[bluegoblin7]

There may well be an enthusiast farewell trip, but any ordinary final service wouldn’t be “reserved”.

The numbers of train enthusiasts [sic] now are no higher than historically. I don’t envisage the final 73TS to be any different to the final 67TS, final A stock, final C stock, final D stock……

 

[bramling]

There may well be an enthusiast farewell trip, but any ordinary final service wouldn’t be “reserved”.

The numbers of train enthusiasts [sic] now are no higher than historically. I don’t envisage the final 73TS to be any different to the final 67TS, final A stock, final C stock, final D stock……

These events are now a lot more turned out than in the past, probably due to social media. The ones listed above may all have been similar, however the last 59 stock managed to fill one car but the rest of the train was fairly empty, whilst the last 83 and 62 stocks attracted little more than a handful. The last Northern Line 72Mk1 stock didn’t even manage that.

Dare one say there is certainly an increased level of bandwagoning nowadays too.

Same on the mainline. The last class 302 was a fairly quiet affair. Just a few people quietly enjoying the atmosphere, no soppy frenzy like is often the case now.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Sure - and I absolutely agree there’s a lot of bandwaggoning. People who never paid any attention to a certain stock/train when they were in service appear en masse for the last event to say they did it.

But the comparison isn’t really valid for the 73TS, imo. If the most recently stopped stock was 59TS, maybe, but many of those who would attend a 73TS trip in at least another three to four years may not have even been alive in 2000. I was aged 7 - even if I wanted to be there I couldn’t have been! The more recent disposals are a far more useful barometer, and from @Alxxxs’s posts I suspect what they’re benchmarking on.

Personally, I made sure I was out for the last day of the C stock - and I was the only person on the train for the first trip of the day - but I avoided all of the D78 trips aside from a Tower-Richmond-Upminster-Tower and the afternoon of the farewell tour because they’re trains that have no interest to me and I certainly won’t miss! The former was to recreate a photo that’s now in the LTM archives, and the latter was as part of the stewarding team.

 

[Alxxxs]

1967 stock had perhaps ~20-30% enthusiasts and TFL officials out of all passengers on the very last service judging by the videos that were shot there. But again, 2011 was before the proper rise of social media.

 

[Route115?]

I was going to suggest that they be used on the Rayners Lane branch during leaf-fall assuming that they can cope with it as well as S stock does, but I suspect that this years leaf-fall will be over before the first one enters service.