New control room for London’s Jubilee Line

London Underground’s extended Jubilee Line will be controlled from a room ergonomically designed by Hertfordshire consultancy Gary Davis Associates.

Described by GDA as one of the most user-friendly in the world, it will initially control the existing Jubilee Line from 1997 before also taking on the extension in 1998. The centre’s architect is Arup Associates.

Designed to accommodate eight operators, the room will feature an 8m-wide video projection overview display. GDA has designed the graphic layout of the display (section pictured).

“It is the one display format that everyone in the room will see. Their different roles demand different information from the overview,” says GDA director Gary Davis. “It could have got out of hand, so we had to calm it down so it became a manageable piece of information display.”

The Jubilee Line project team appointed Alcatel Canada to supply signalling and control systems. Alcatel then subcontracted GDA to design the control room, partly because of the group’s previous transport projects for LU and in Hong Kong.

A full-size mock-up was created so that control room staff could comment on the design early in the process.

Davis says the project is typical of the trend towards more user-centred design in the rail industry.