The first driverless trains will be running on the Bakerloo line by 2021, Boris Johnson said today.
As the Mayor set out his timetable, he pledged not to buy any more Tube trains with an old-fashioned drivers’ cab.
It comes as Tube unions held strikes on the Jubilee, Bakerloo and Northern lines in a row over pensions.
The plan will be seen by union bosses as a declaration of war after the Mayor’s first term when the network suffered numerous strikes.
Mr Johnson, announcing his milestones at Marylebone, said: “It is precisely because we need to take out cost and to bear down on fares that we must go ahead with modernising the Tube.
“I want to automate the Tube network to improve journeys, cut delays, drive down costs and keep fares low. With automatic trains we will be able to expand and improve the service - and that will be good from London Underground employees as well as for passengers.
“Our investments in new technology give this city a huge opportunity to modernise the oldest tube system in the world.”
The first driverless trains, operating with ‘train captains’ like the DLR, will be running on the Bakerloo line by 2021.
Mr Johnson said he would publish a feasibility study into the project - looking at the costs - immediately if re-elected.
He would then put the design phase out to contract in late 2014 and the rest of the signalling contract in summer 2015.
Under that timetable the trains would start being built mid-2017 - in the next mayoral term - pre-production would begin in early 2019 and the service would start running two years later.
