A London diary entry on TfL’s engineering study into replacing the Bakerloo fleet, a strange nostalgia for trains that are objectively falling apart, and what it means to grow up alongside ageing infrastructure
TfL has taken another step toward finally replacing the Bakerloo line’s genuinely ageing trains, appointing an engineering consultancy to study the depot and sidings changes a new fleet would require, and reading the announcement produced an odd, unexpected wave of nostalgia for carriages I have spent years cheerfully complaining about.
Why News Of Their Eventual Replacement Hit Differently Than I Expected
I’ve ridden these same battered, distinctly old-fashioned carriages since I first moved to this city, complained about the noise and the cramped seating more times than I could count, and yet reading that their actual replacement is finally, properly being planned made me feel strangely protective of trains I’d never have described as anything close to beloved.
What Actually Makes These Particular Carriages Feel So Distinctly Different From The Rest Of The Network
There’s a specific, almost tactile datedness to the Bakerloo stock, everything from the seat fabric to the exact pitch of the doors closing, that stands in genuine contrast to the newer, smoother trains running elsewhere across the network, and somewhere along the way that datedness became less an annoyance and more a strange, specific comfort.
Why This Engineering Study Stage Feels Like Such A Genuinely Significant Milestone
After years of the replacement existing purely as a vague, someday promise, an actual consultancy studying actual depot and sidings changes feels like the first properly concrete evidence that this is genuinely moving forward rather than remaining permanently theoretical.
How I’ve Started Riding These Old Carriages Slightly Differently Since Reading This News
With a bit more attention, oddly, actually noticing details I’d stopped consciously registering years ago, the specific worn patina on the grab rails, the particular sound of these specific doors, treating a commute I usually spend entirely on my phone as something worth briefly, properly paying attention to before it eventually disappears for good.
Whether I’ll Actually Miss These Trains Once The New Fleet Finally Arrives
Almost certainly, in the same way you unexpectedly miss anything that’s simply been a constant, unremarkable backdrop to a significant chunk of your adult life. The new trains will be better in every measurable way, quieter, more reliable, more comfortable, and I’ll still probably feel a small, sentimental pang the first time I board one instead of these familiar old carriages.
