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Transport for London today promised more trains and fewer delays as it set out plans for the modernisation of the District, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines.

Tube chiefs said passengers would face “hugely less” disruption than they had experienced when the Jubilee and Victoria lines were upgraded.

They hope to keep closures to a minimum as they bring in a modern signalling system as well as almost 200 new air-conditioned trains across the four lines.

The next stage of the long-running Tube upgrade programme, which begins later this year, includes some of the oldest parts of the network built in the 1860s.

London Underground boss Mike Brown told the Standard: “The programme will take a little bit longer to turn up the frequency of trains but part of that is to make sure we don’t have huge swathes of closures or the delays we had on Monday mornings.

“We’re going to try to keep disruption to a minimum. I’m trying to stop as many closures on London Undergound as we’ve seen perhaps in the past. We should end up with just a handful.

"We want to adopt the same approach for these four lines as the Northern line where weekend closures were cancelled.”

The four lines, which make up nearly 40 per cent of the Tube network, carry around 1.3 million passengers a day.

After the upgrade the Circle line alone, which currently runs every ten minutes, will run every four minutes, more than double the frequency.

Customers are expected to start seeing benefits of the upgrade work on the Circle line in 2021. After the four lines have been modernised TfL will then focus on new trains and signals for the Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines.

Mr Brown tried to reassure Londoners there would be no repeat of the Bombardier contract which collapsed in December 2013 leaving taxpayers to foot an estimated £100 million bill.

He said he was “very confident” there would be no issues with new contractor Thales and that “very, very detailed talks” were already taking place.

“We pulled the plug before much had been done. We got a bit of stick at the time but I do maintain it was the right thing to do,” he said.

Cost-cutting of TfL’s capital budget meant the funding shortfall could be made up without other transport projects suffering, he said.

The Tube boss denied that more strikes were inevitable as a result of rolling out more “driverless” trains on the network.

It came as London Underground announced it was on course to meet the Mayor’s target of reducing delays on the Tube by 30 per cent since 2011.

Mr Brown admitted there was further to go. “The nearer you get to the top of the summit, the steeper the climb,” he said.

“Having modernised three of the most heavily used lines we now need to bring the next four lines in to the modern era. To do so is absolutely vital to us continuing to effectively support London’s new economic growth, housing and jobs as London’s population grows from 8.6 million today to 10 million in 2030.

“The work will transform for the better the journeys of millions of our customers – cutting journey times, wait times and crowding and ensuring journeys are more reliable.

“The scale and complexity of the work and the need to keep London moving as we do it means that it will take several years. In the meantime we are continuing to deliver a better, more reliable service – with delays now at their lowest ever level.”

Labour transport spokesman Val Shawcross said: "The idea that the Mayor thinks today’s announcement is something to boast about is stunning.

"Not only are these upgrades now expected to complete four years later than planned, the new contract comes after the Mayor and TfL wasted over £85m of taxpayer money on the disastrous failure of the previous Bombardier deal.

“These lines are already operating ridiculously close to capacity and now we learn that as a result of the Bombardier fiasco, commuters will have to wait an extra four years to see the improvements they were promised."