title: Overkill (band)

text: To date, Overkill has released nineteen studio albums, an album of cover songs, two EPs, one demo tape and three live albums. They were one of the first thrash metal bands to sign to a major label (having signed to Atlantic Records in 1986), and rose to fame as part of the genre's movement of the mid-to-late 1980s, along with the "Big Four" (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) as well as Exodus and Testament. Overkill achieved their first mainstream success with its second studio album and Atlantic debut, "Taking Over" (1987), which peaked at number 191 on the "Billboard" 200. The band's next five studio albums—"Under the Influence" (1988), "The Years of Decay" (1989), "Horrorscope" (1991), "I Hear Black" (1993) and "W.F.O." (1994)—were also successful on the "Billboard" charts, with the latter two cracking the top ten on the Top Heatseekers chart. Following their split from Atlantic in 1995, Overkill went through some label changes, but continued to enjoy moderate underground success, particularly in Europe and Japan. The band experienced a resurgence of popularity in the U.S. during the 2010s, with three of their studio albums released that decade—"The Electric Age" (2012), "White Devil Armory" (2014) and "The Grinding Wheel" (2017)—reaching the top 100 on the charts. Overkill has sold over 16 million records worldwide; they are also estimated to have sold more than 625,000 records in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill was formed in 1980 from the ashes of the punk band "the Lubricunts", featuring bassist D.D. Verni and drummer Rat Skates. Verni and Skates placed an ad looking for a guitarist and lead singer which was answered by guitarist Robert Pisarek and singer Bobby Ellsworth and the first incarnation of Overkill was formed. After rejecting several names, including "Virgin Killer," the band finally settled on "Overkill," named after Motörhead's second album.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Early covers, especially those done under the "Virgin Killer" name, were punk songs by the Ramones, Dead Boys and others. By late 1980, the band's setlist was made up of songs by bands such as Motörhead ("Overkill" and half of the "Ace of Spades" album), Judas Priest ("Tyrant" was their closer), and Riot. Along with the new influx of heavy metal covers, the band still played a smattering of punk covers, with extra distortion, intensity, and speed. In 1981, the band went through a succession of guitarists after Robert Pisarek left, first being replaced by Dan Spitz and Anthony , then Rich Conte and Mike Sherry, before settling with Bobby Gustafson in late 1982/early 1983. It was around this time that the band started writing original songs, including "Grave Robbers" (later renamed "Raise the Dead"), "Overkill", and "Unleash the Beast (Within)". More songs would follow, such as "Death Rider" (1981) and "Rotten to the Core" (1982). As the band continued to write songs, they became a staple at New York and New Jersey clubs, such as L'Amours.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In 1983, the lineup of Verni, Skates, Ellsworth, and Gustafson released the "Power in Black" demo, a recording that made as much impact in the underground tape trading circuit as demos by then-up-and-coming Bay Area thrash metal bands such as Exodus and Testament. "Power in Black" gained the band two compilation appearances. "Feel the Fire" was included on "New York Metal '84" and "Death Rider" appeared on volume V of Metal Blade Records' "Metal Massacre" series. The success of "Power in Black" enabled the band to secure a small recording deal with Azra/Metal Storm Records that resulted in the 1985 four-track EP "Overkill", which quickly sold out, instantly pushing the band to the forefront of the fledgling thrash metal movement. Long out of print, the vinyl-only EP is now considered a rare collector's item and all the songs appeared eleven years later on the compilation album "!!!Fuck You!!! and Then Some".


title: Overkill (band)

text: Though it is said that the band never saw any money from the release, the "Overkill" EP garnered the band massive underground interest, and the attention of Jon Zazula, owner of Megaforce Records, one of the most prominent independent heavy metal record labels at the time. Megaforce signed Overkill to a multi-album record contract and released their full-length debut album "Feel the Fire" in 1985. Hailed by many critics and fans as a thrash metal masterpiece, the album cemented the band's position as one of the driving forces of the East Coast thrash movement. The band spent the better part of 1985 and 1986 touring in support of "Feel the Fire", touring Europe with Anthrax and Agent Steel, and supporting Slayer on their "Reign in Blood" tour in North America. Overkill's grueling tour schedule and the growing buzz for "Feel the Fire" resulted in the band being courted by several major labels; they eventually signed to Atlantic Records, making Overkill one of the earliest thrash metal bands to sign to a major label.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill's second album, "Taking Over", was released in March 1987; it was the first to be released by Megaforce in cooperation with Atlantic Records. The album featured longer songs and improved production. "Taking Over" also brought the band public recognition, becoming their first album to hit the "Billboard" 200, while Overkill's first-ever music video "In Union We Stand" received moderate airplay on MTV's "Headbangers Ball". Another European tour followed, this time opening for Helloween. Overkill also opened for Megadeth on their "Peace Sells" tour in North America, and then headlined their own US tour, accompanied by Megaforce/Atlantic labelmates Testament.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In late 1987, the "!!!Fuck You!!!" EP was released, consisting of a studio recording of the Subhumans' song "Fuck You" as well as a handful of live tracks recorded earlier that year in Cleveland. 1987 also saw the departure of founding drummer Rat Skates. He was replaced by Mark Archibole for a short time, and then on a permanent basis by Danish drummer Bob "Sid" Falck, formerly of Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone. Overkill closed out the year with a one-off show at the Christmas on Earth festival in Leeds, England, together with Megadeth, Kreator, Nuclear Assault, Voivod, the Cro-Mags, Lȧȧz Rockit and Virus.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill released their third album, "Under the Influence", in July 1988. Once again produced by Alex Perialas, who had worked on the band's first two albums, "Under the Influence" was much more raw and thrashy, lacking most of the epic atmosphere heard on "Taking Over". "Hello from the Gutter" was released as a single, and its music video gained regular airplay on "Headbangers Ball". Overkill kept up constant touring all over the world, furthering their reputation as one of the most active live metal bands; this included opening for Slayer on their "South of Heaven" tour in the United States and Europe, and performing with other bands such as Anthrax, Motörhead, Anvil, Nuclear Assault, M.O.D., Testament, Vio-lence, King's X, Prong, Murphy's Law, Ludichrist and Znowhite.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill released their fourth album, "The Years of Decay", in October 1989. Produced by Terry Date (who would later work with Pantera, White Zombie and Soundgarden), the album featured the band's best production value to date, as well as Overkill's most progressive and diverse work compared to their previous albums. It combined the raw approach of "Under the Influence" with more complex song structures and epic elements of "Taking Over", resulting in a more serious atmosphere and longer songs, including the eight-minute title track and the ten-minute "Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher", the latter is the longest track Overkill has recorded to date. Although the album charted lower than "Under the Influence" on the "Billboard" 200 at number 155, "The Years of Decay" was a breakthrough album for Overkill, selling over 67,000 copies within the next decade-and-a-half, and includes one of the band's best-known songs "Elimination", for which a music video received regular airplay on MTV's "Headbangers Ball". That song became a fan favorite and remains a staple in the band's live repertoire. Overkill toured relentlessly in support of "The Years of Decay" between November 1989 and June 1990, with bands such as Testament, Wolfsbane, Dark Angel, Vio-lence, Mordred, Powermad, Whiplash and Excel.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Not long after "The Years of Decay" tour ended in the summer of 1990, Gustafson parted ways with Overkill. Accounts vary as to exactly how and why he had split with the band: he was either fired by Verni and Ellsworth, or had left Overkill following an argument over the band's musical direction. Gustafson has stated that one of the reasons for his split with Overkill was due to disagreements over royalties, during which he became embroiled in a bitter feud with Verni and Ellsworth. The remaining members added two new guitarists to the band; Rob Cannavino, who had been Gustafson's guitar technician, and Merritt Gant, formerly of Faith or Fear. Ellsworth stated in an interview with "Invisible Oranges" years later that the reason Overkill had hired two guitarists was mainly because they wanted to do something different: "We knew if we replaced Bobby with one guitarist, we'd get compared to what we were. So, it seemed like to logical thing to bring in two players. We didn't want anyone to say, 'Bobby was better than this new guy.' And we wanted to perform old stuff with two guitars to keep in fresh. We realized that change isn't a bad thing."


title: Overkill (band)

text: The "new" Overkill recorded their fifth album "Horrorscope", once again with Terry Date, in 1991. Featuring the furious riffs and trade-off solos of new guitarists Cannavino and Gant, and the refined songwriting of Verni and Ellsworth, "Horrorscope" quickly silenced worries from fans the band would not recover from their split with Gustafson. Today, the album is widely regarded as one of Overkill's defining moments and is arguably their heaviest release. Focusing on a darker, heavier style, the album spawned the doomy single "Horrorscope", a departure from the band's earlier singles, which had traditionally been uptempo songs. "Horrorscope" was also Overkill's first album to be accompanied by more than one music video or single; there were music videos for the title track and "Thanx for Nothin'" (both of which received some good airplay on "Headbangers Ball"), while other songs like "Coma", "Infectious" and the cover version of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" received particular attention (through radio or otherwise), therefore expanding the band's popularity in the heavy metal community, and helping the album enter the Top 30 on the "Billboard" Heatseekers chart. Overkill supported "Horrorscope" by touring North America with Anacrusis and Galactic Cowboys in 1991 and Armored Saint in 1992, after which Sid Falck left the band. Admittedly never a big fan of thrash metal music, Falck said that he had initially wanted to push his drumming to the limit by playing the most complex type of music (of the era), and in time he decided to pursue other musical interests.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Falck was replaced by former M.O.D. drummer Tim Mallare, with whom the next Overkill album "I Hear Black" was recorded. Released in March 1993, "I Hear Black" was produced by Alex Perialas (who previously produced their albums "Taking Over" and "Under the Influence"), and was the first Overkill album released directly through Atlantic Records. The album once again presented a change in style, from the heavy thrash of "Horrorscope" to a more stoner/blues rock-oriented style influenced by Black Sabbath. The eclectic nature of the album is often attributed to the fact that many different songwriters were involved. Verni and Ellsworth would handle most of the song writing themselves on subsequent albums, with only minor contributions from the other members. A music video was shot for "Spiritual Void" and it had received minor airplay on "Headbangers Ball". The European leg of the 1993 "World of Hurt Tour" featured Savatage and Non-Fiction as support acts.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill's self-produced seventh album "W.F.O." (which stands for "Wide Fuckin' Open", a common biker term) was released on July 15, 1994 as an answer to the criticism that "I Hear Black" had received. The album presented a fast, heads-down, old school thrash metal style without any of the experimental elements present on "I Hear Black" in favor of a groove-oriented sound. The music video for "Fast Junkie" received little or no airplay from MTV, due to changing mainstream tastes and limited airplay availability for metal bands. Overkill continued to have bigger success overseas, mounting an extensive European tour in the fall, supported by Jag Panzer and Massacra.


title: Overkill (band)

text: With grunge dominating the airwaves in the United States, many heavy metal radio stations changing formats and "Headbangers Ball" going off the air, "W.F.O." failed to find an audience and in 1995 Overkill left Atlantic Records. Overkill were happy to leave the mainstream label, where they felt they received little or no attention and signed to different record companies around the world (CMC International in the US).


title: Overkill (band)

text: A March 1995 show, once again in Cleveland, Ohio, was recorded for Overkill's first full-length live album, a 100-minute double CD entitled "Wrecking Your Neck". The album was released in April 1995, with the first pressing featuring a bonus CD containing the "Overkill EP" that had been out of print for ten years. A music video for the song "Bastard Nation" taken from "Wrecking Your Neck" was also released, but again failed to receive airplay in the US.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Late in 1995, both Cannavino and Gant decided to leave the band; Rob Cannavino to focus on motorcycle racing, and Merritt Gant to spend more time with his family. To everyone's surprise, Overkill then hired Joe Comeau, former singer of Liege Lord (now playing guitar). Comeau brought along former Anvil guitarist Sebastian Marino, with whom he had worked in the past. The new line up recorded "The Killing Kind" in 1996, again self-produced and mixed by Chris Tsangarides (Judas Priest). While staying well within the thrash genre, the album was a departure from its predecessor's more traditional thrash metal style and featured different elements such as hardcore, while the vocals showed influences from a broad spectrum of music. As Comeau was also a singer, backing vocals on "The Killing Kind" and subsequent albums were more elaborate and frequent than before, adding another element to the band's sound. Press response to "The Killing Kind" was very positive, but the album remains a hotly contested topic among the band's audience, with some longtime fans resistant to the new modern elements, and others hailing "The Killing Kind" as one of the band's finest moments.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill toured Europe twice in support of "The Killing Kind" first in February 1996 with Megora and Accu§er, and then again in November with Anvil and Stahlhammer. In the summer of 1996, Overkill appeared on Volume 2 of Century Media's "Legends of Metal – A Tribute to Judas Priest" compilation, to which they contributed "Tyrant".


title: Overkill (band)

text: In summer 1997, the band released "!!!Fuck You!!! and Then Some". The album included the "!!!Fuck You!!!" EP, which had been out of print for some years, along with the classic "Overkill EP" and two live tracks from a 1990 promo single. October of the same year saw the release of the ninth Overkill studio album, titled "From The Underground And Below". This record retained some of the modern influences from "The Killing Kind", while also reincorporating elements from the band's earlier efforts. Some songs on "From The Underground And Below", including "Save Me", even had a slight industrial metal sound to them. Reportedly a video for the track "Long Time Dyin'" was shot, but received no television exposure. In 1998, once again the band opted to tour only Europe in support of the album, hitting the road with Nevermore, Angel Dust and Nocturnal Rites.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In 1998, Ellsworth was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of nose cancer and underwent immediate surgery, stopping the cancer before it spread. After his recovery, the band started work on their tenth studio album. The self-produced "Necroshine" was released in February 1999, making Overkill the first thrash metal band ever to release ten full-length studio albums (Other first wave thrash bands, such as Sodom or Kreator would not achieve this milestone until two years later). While once again quite different from the previous records and musically not considered "classic" Overkill, the album was vocally even more experimental than "The Killing Kind", and was well received by fans and critics alike.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Before the release of Necroshine, Sebastian Marino left Overkill to spend more time with his family. He was replaced by Dave Linsk from the New Jersey hardcore/thrash metal band Anger On Anger. A two-week European trip in June was arranged to fill the gap between appearances at the Dynamo and With Full Force festivals.


title: Overkill (band)

text: September 1999 saw the release of "Coverkill", an album consisting entirely of cover versions from bands that were especially influential to Overkill, such as Black Sabbath (featured three times), Kiss, Motörhead, Manowar, and The Ramones. Some of the tracks had been previously available on compilations or as bonus tracks, but others had been shelved for years (the earliest recording was from the "Under the Influence" sessions) or were recorded immediately prior to the album's release. A full European tour in support of both "Necroshine" and "Coverkill" took place in February 2000, as Overkill co-headlined with Canadian thrash metal band Annihilator, with the German band Dew-Scented in the opening slot.


title: Overkill (band)

text: During the European tour, Annihilator fired their lead singer Randy Rampage due to his disruptive behavior. A few months later, Joe Comeau was confirmed as his replacement, effectively ending his tenure with Overkill. The band returned to the studio, this time as a four-piece, and in the fall of 2000, released "Bloodletting". Once again produced by the band, and mixed by Colin Richardson.


title: Overkill (band)

text: November of the same year saw the band again touring Europe as a special guest of Halford's "Resurrection" world tour. Since Overkill had not found a new rhythm guitarist yet, Comeau joined on a temporary basis for the tour. For the last couple of shows, the band also utilized another session musician. With D.D. Verni's wife about to give birth to their second child, Verni was to miss a week or two of shows and needed a fill-in. Derek Tailer of Dee Snider's band S.M.F was asked to do the job. In 2002, Tailer was announced as a permanent member of Overkill, although not on bass, but filling the vacant rhythm guitarist position.


title: Overkill (band)

text: After taking a break, Overkill resurfaced in 2002 with "Wrecking Everything", their second full-length live album, recorded at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The album contained only songs that had not been on "Wrecking Your Neck", some simply because they were released on later albums, but also a few early songs from albums such as "Taking Over" and "Under the Influence". The same show was used for Overkill's first ever DVD, "Wrecking Everything – An Evening in Asbury Park", also released in 2002.


title: Overkill (band)

text: The European tour in June 2002, supporting both "Bloodletting" and "Wrecking Everything", saw Blaze and Wicked Mystic opening up for Overkill. During the second to last show of the tour in Nuremberg, Germany, Blitz suffered a stroke on stage and collapsed. For nearly three days, rumors ran rampant, reporting everything from Blitz being in a coma, permanently paralyzed, or even that Blitz had died. Finally, three days later, the band announced that the stroke was very minor and had no lasting consequences, as well as no cause that could be determined by the doctors.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill signed to Spitfire Records and entered the studio in late 2002 to record their next studio album, "Killbox 13". Produced by the band and Colin Richardson and released in March 2003, the album was actually only their twelfth regular studio album, but the "Overkill EP" was also counted to achieve the number 13. The album received critical acclaim, combining the "new" Overkill with their raw early style as presented on the debut album "Feel the Fire". Touring for the album included a number of European festivals during the summer, and a full European tour followed in November with Seven Witches and After All. The band played without Derek Tailer, who was absent for undisclosed reasons. Nobody was hired to fill in for him, so Overkill toured as a four-piece for the first time since 1990. Tailer was still considered a full member of the band.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In late 2004, after a Japanese tour with Death Angel and Flotsam and Jetsam, the band started work on another record in D.D. Verni's own recording studio. The album, "ReliXIV", was produced and mixed by the band themselves and released in March 2005.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill toured the eastern US in April 2005, and just before they went on a European tour in May, it was announced that Tim Mallare would not take part in this tour. Replacing him for the tour was former Hades drummer Ron Lipnicki. A few weeks later, the band announced that Mallare had left permanently and Lipnicki was his replacement. In the summer of 2005, Overkill organized their first US west coast tour in more than ten years, playing Western Canada to Southern California. The tour was such a success that the band was added to the 2006 Gigantour bill, as second stage headliners, marking Overkill's first nationwide US tour since 1994.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Now with the Bodog Music label, the band rejoined forces with Jonny and Marsha Zazula, previous owners of Megaforce Records, who are now part of the Bodog Team in the United States. Overkill released its 15th studio album, "Immortalis", on October 9, 2007. The album featured the lineup of founders Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and D.D. Verni, guitarists Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer, and new drummer Ron Lipnicki. Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe contributed vocals on the song "Skull and Bones".


title: Overkill (band)

text: On October 30, 2009, it was reported that Overkill had inked a multi-album deal with Nuclear Blast Records. The band's 15th album, "Ironbound"—which is described as a true "thrashter-piece"—was released on February 9, 2010. The album marked something of a "comeback" for Overkill after years of lackluster record sales and a decline in popularity in the U.S. since the mid-1990s; it was also the band's first album to appear on the "Billboard" 200 chart since 1993's "I Hear Black", peaking at number 192. The band happened to be playing at Times Square in New York City on May 1, 2010, as part of their "Ironbound" tour when someone nearby attempted unsuccessfully to blow a car up using fireworks. The show proceeded without interruption, but some ticket holders arriving late were prevented from entering the theater by police responding to the incident. Overkill toured for almost two years by promoting "Ironbound"; it started with a European trek in February 2010 (supported by Suicidal Angels, Savage Messiah and Cripper), followed two months later by a U.S. tour with Vader, God Dethroned, Warbringer, Evile and Woe of Tyrants. The band toured the U.S. again in the fall (this time with Forbidden, Evile, Gama Bomb and Bonded by Blood), and then did a European run in March 2011 with Destruction, Heathen, After All and Bonded by Blood. The tour cycle for "Ironbound" ended in South America in the fall of 2011.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In July 2011, Overkill began demoing six songs and were planning to begin recording their 16th album in October for an early 2012 release. The resulting album, "The Electric Age", was released on March 27, 2012, and it was the band's first album to enter the top 100 on the "Billboard" 200, peaking at number 77; this was also Overkill's highest-chart position at the time. In 2013, the band embarked on "The Dark Roots of Thrash" tour of North America, headlined by labelmates Testament along with Flotsam and Jetsam, and 4Arm. However, they canceled their February 15 show in Huntington at The Paramount Theatre due to singer Bobby "Blitz" being diagnosed with "walking pneumonia". On February 18, it was announced that Overkill was officially dropped out of the "Dark Roots of Thrash" tour as Blitz's condition had gotten slightly worse after the show in Worcester, Massachusetts.


title: Overkill (band)

text: On August 31, 2013, Overkill entered Gear Recording on to begin recording their seventeenth studio album. The album was going to be released on March 7, 2014. On January 14, however, it was announced that the album was postponed to July. On March 15, it was revealed that the new album was going to be titled "White Devil Armory". After some delays, "White Devil Armory" was finally released on July 22, 2014. The album was their most successful; it peaked at #31 on the "Billboard" 200, making it Overkill's highest chart position so far.


title: Overkill (band)

text: On November 5, 2015, it was announced that Overkill would play a special show on April 16, 2016 in Oberhausen where they played the "Feel the Fire" and "Horrorscope" albums in their entirety. The show was professionally filmed and recorded for the DVD "Live in Overhausen", which was released on May 18, 2018.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill released a box set, titled "", on October 16, 2015. To support the box set, Overkill embarked on a North American tour with Symphony X in September–October 2015, and a UK tour in April 2016. In a September 2015 interview, Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth revealed that Overkill had begun writing their eighteenth studio album, and by March 2016, they had "fully demoed" eleven songs for it. Ellsworth said in a March 2016 interview that Overkill would begin recording the album in early May for an October release. On April 16, 2017, the band announced that their drummer Ron Lipnicki would miss the European tour due to a family emergency, and that he would be replaced by Eddy Garcia, which was later confirmed to be a "personal issue" from Lipnicki. On August 13, 2016, "The Grinding Wheel" was announced as the name of the album, and Ellsworth said that the band was "looking for a first-week-of-November release"; however, the album's release date was pushed back to February 10, 2017. "The Grinding Wheel" was another successful album for Overkill; it reached at number 69 on the "Billboard" 200, making it the band's second-highest chart position behind "White Devil Armory". To support the album, Overkill toured North America with Nile, and supported former Sepultura members Max and Igor Cavalera in Europe on the Return to Roots tour. They also headlined the 2017 edition of the Metal Alliance Tour, supported by Crowbar, Havok, Black Fast and Invidia.


title: Overkill (band)

text: On May 4, 2017, Overkill announced that Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall and formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam) had replaced Lipnicki as the drummer of the band. Lipnicki later went on to join Whiplash.


title: Overkill (band)

text: On February 9, 2018, Overkill announced that they were in the studio working on demos for their nineteenth studio album. Pre-production of the album began that April, and Ellsworth announced that it would be released in February 2019. On June 1, 2018, the band announced that they had begun recording the album. During an interview with Eddie Trunk on "Trunk Nation" on October 10, 2018, bassist D.D. Verni announced that the album was finished; he was quoted as saying, "I just got the final sequencing and all that, so that's all buttoned up. We're working on the cover now. We still don't have a title — we're gonna have to come up with that soon — but we have a lot of things floating around. And the new release will probably be in February." On November 28, 2018, Overkill announced that the album was titled "The Wings of War" and would be released on February 22, 2019. The band promoted the album by headlining the 2019 edition of the Killfest Tour, supported by Destruction, Flotsam and Jetsam and Meshiaak, touring North America in the spring with Death Angel and Mothership, and performing at Megadeth's first-ever MegaCruise in the Pacific Ocean that October. They continued to tour in support of "The Wings of War" in 2020, including touring the US with Exhorder and Hydraform, and appearing at a handful of metal-related festivals in Europe.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In June 2019, it was reported that Overkill was expected to start writing new material for their 20th studio album by the beginning of 2020. In an interview with Metal Exhumator in October 2019, Ellsworth said, "We just sat down and talked about starting to write in the spring. Maybe late spring, early summer, just say maybe we should just schedule some time to do it. But there's been no ideas with regard to where it's going to go." Bittner revealed in an April 2020 interview with Metal Pilgrim that Verni had written nine songs for their new album, but added that plans to enter the studio were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic: "So our plan was to start working on new material, but considering the fact that we have to stay in our spaces right now, we're just kind of doing things electronically and it's just given D.D. some more time to write. Because we were kind of on a little bit of a timeline, 'cause we — well, all right, I'll say we "had" a plan, but everybody had a plan before last month." He also mentioned that a European tour in March 2021 to support the album was in the works: "We have no idea if that's gonna even be a possibility right now, because timelines that we had for the record label and whatnot are no longer those anymore, because the record label is shut down and "nobody" is doing any business right this very second." Ellsworth stated in an interview with A&P Reacts in June 2020 that the new Overkill album was expected to be released in April 2021, with a tour supporting it to follow; Bittner later revealed that the band had recorded 11 demos for the album, and added, "I think right now, the last time I talked to D.D., our idea is to try to start getting drums done, like, September-ish, depending on what happens. The problem is that we really can't do our regular pre-production right now, because we all don't live in the same state." On September 5, 2020, Bitter announced on his Facebook profile that Overkill would enter the studio on September 14 to begin recording their new album. Drum tracks had been finished by October, and mixing was handled by Colin Richardson, who had previously worked with Overkill in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In an interview on That Metal Interview in October 2020, Bittner said its release could be pushed back to the fall of 2021 due to the COVID pandemic, explaining, "Lord knows what's gonna happen. God forbid it gets worse. It might even be pushed back even longer. But the point is at least we're gonna get it done." Verni reiterated Bittner's comments about a possible release date, saying, "I don't know. We're trying to coordinate it maybe with some touring. We don't really have any touring till next July, I think, our first shows. We have shows [booked] in July, August, September, October. Whether any of them are gonna happen, I don't know, but probably something like that for the new Overkill release. So I'll be working on that between now and then." Bittner later stated that the release of the new album was pushed back to February 2022. In an August 2021 interview on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Verni revealed that Overkill was still recording their new album and planning to mix it in the fall for a March 2022 release coincided with a tour. However, Ellsworth stated in a March 2022 interview that it was not expected to be released before April 2023.


title: Overkill (band)

text: On November 13, 2021, Overkill performed their first show in "609 f!!kin' days" at The Wellmont Theater in New Jersey; supported by Demolition Hammer and Sworn Enemy, it was a make-up date for a show that was initially scheduled to take place on March 14, 2020, but was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At this show, Phil Demmel (formerly of Machine Head and currently of Vio-lence) filled in for guitarist Dave Linsk, who was unable to perform. Demmel filled in for him again during the band's spring 2022 tour with Prong.


title: Overkill (band)

text: In December 2022, Bittner revealed that the next studio album would be called "Scorched" and is scheduled to be released in 2023. That same month, Overkill debuted its first song in three-and-a-half years, "Wicked Place", during their performance at the Ruhrpott Metal Meeting festival in Oberhausen, Germany.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Though less popular than larger bands of the same genre, Overkill is one of the oldest thrash metal bands performing today. Although their debut album was not released until 1985, Overkill's beginnings predate the formation of all of the "Big Four" of thrash metal bands (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer) by at least one year. After the band's inception, as time passed and Overkill began creating more music alongside its quickly-growing competitors, it became known for its fast and heavy style. The band's music lacked enough variety to rival the names of the "Big Four", but Overkill maintained its unique sound unwaveringly throughout its career instead of trying to gain popularity with a more commercial style. Overkill has been viewed as one of the most important thrash bands from the East Coast, and they are considered to be one of the most active bands of the genre; unlike many of their thrash peers, Overkill has never disbanded or gone on hiatus, nor released a new studio album in more than three years.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Along with Exodus and Testament, Overkill has been the subject of which thrash metal band should be included in an expanded "Big Four". Asked in September 2014 about the idea of either Overkill, Exodus or Testament being included in the "Big Five" of thrash metal, frontman Bobby Ellsworth replied, "Aw man, that's gonna put me in a corner! We measure our success in days, not dollars! But maybe you can find the answer in what I'm going to say. When [playing thrash metal] became harder in the '90s with grunge music, we never had a question about if we would stop doing it and go work for our moms and dads or something. We just needed to make it happen. We weren't going to let grunge stop us. And if it did, we'd just go back to the underground. I liked it there anyway!" Commenting on the fact that Overkill never became part of the "Big Four", Ellsworth stated, "When it comes to being selected and not selected, that's a simple accounting issue. When you talk numbers, numbers make the world go around, numbers put food on your table, and numbers put the 'Big Four' in arenas. And they sell enough records to do that. For me, it's not a concern. To even be asked the question from you is quite a compliment with regard to, let's say, our longevity or tenacity doing what we like doing. But this is quite simply an accounting issue. He who sells the most gets the pole positions."


title: Overkill (band)

text: Overkill's sound has influenced the genre of thrash metal. Their technique draws on bits and pieces of punk and hard rock as well as NWOBHM. These elements blend to create a fast, aggressive style unique to the band and make Overkill's sound easily recognizable to metal fans; as a result, they have been referred to as "the Motörhead of thrash metal". The band has been influenced by a variety of music, including heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock and classic rock acts such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, The Who, Aerosmith, Rush, KISS, Alice Cooper, Queen, UFO, Jethro Tull, Motörhead, Saxon, Venom, Ted Nugent, Humble Pie, Rainbow, Manowar, Wishbone Ash and Starz, as well as punk rock and glam rock acts such as the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Damned, the New York Dolls, Lou Reed, The Vibrators, Generation X and the Dead Boys.


title: Overkill (band)

text: Many of today's new-wave thrash bands have been influenced by older groups in the genre, including Mantic Ritual, who incorporate a variety of stylistic traits reminiscent of Overkill and other thrash bands that had found success in the past. Overkill has also been cited as an influence on the groove metal genre; Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell had cited Bobby Gustafson's performance on the albums "Under the Influence" and "The Years of Decay" as the source of inspiration for the band's transition from glam metal to thrash/groove metal, as well as "The Years of Decay" producer Terry Date's production for Pantera's 1990 album "Cowboys from Hell".


title: The Fly II

text: The Fly II is a 1989 American science fiction horror film directed by Chris Walas. The film stars Eric Stoltz and Daphne Zuniga, and is a sequel to the 1986 film "The Fly", itself a remake of the 1958 film of the same name. Stoltz's character in this sequel is the adult son of Veronica Quaife and Seth Brundle, a scientist who became a human-fly hybrid as a result of an experiment gone awry, played by Jeff Goldblum in the 1986 remake. With the exception of stock footage of Goldblum from the first film, John Getz was the only actor to reprise his role, with another actress filling the Geena Davis role as Quaife in the opening birth scene. Unlike the previous film, this film received negative reviews.


title: The Fly II

text: Several months after the events of "The Fly", Veronica Quaife gives birth to a larval sac and dies. The sac splits open to reveal a seemingly normal baby boy. Anton Bartok, the owner of the company that financed Seth Brundle's original teleportation experiments, adopts the child and names him Martin. Martin grows up in a clinical environment, tested and examined by Dr. Jainway and Dr. Shepard, two scientists under Bartok's employ. Martin's physical and mental maturity is highly accelerated, and he possesses a genius-level intellect, incredible reflexes, and no need for sleep. He knows he is aging faster than a normal human, but is unaware of the true cause, having been told his father died from the same rapid aging disease.


title: The Fly II

text: At age three, Martin has the physique of a 10-year-old and frequently sneaks around to explore the Bartok complex. He finds a room containing laboratory animals and befriends a dog. The next night, he brings it food but finds it missing. He enters an observation booth overlooking Bay 17. There, scientists have reassembled Brundle's Telepods, but have been unable to duplicate the programming that enabled them to teleport living subjects. An attempt to teleport the dog fails, leaving it horribly deformed. It maims one of the scientists, horrifying young Martin. Two years later, Martin's body has matured to that of a 25-year-old young man. On his fifth birthday, Bartok presents Martin with a bungalow on the Bartok facility's property. He also offers Martin a job: repair his father's Telepods. He apologizes about the dog and assures Martin that its suffering was brief. When Martin is uneasy about the proposition, Bartok shows him Veronica Quaife's videotapes, which documented Seth Brundle's progress with the Telepods. Seeing his father describe how the Telepods ostensibly improved and energized his body, Martin accepts Bartok's proposal.


title: The Fly II

text: As he works on the Telepods, Martin befriends an employee, Beth Logan. Beth invites Martin to a party at the specimens division, where he learns that the mutated dog is still kept alive and studied. Thinking Beth is aware of the dog's imprisonment, Martin argues with her, leaves the party, and goes to the animal's holding pen. The deformed dog, in terrible pain, still remembers Martin (recognizing him despite his growth), and he tearfully euthanizes it with chloroform. Martin reconciles with Beth and arrives at his father's "eureka" moment when he realizes the Telepods' computer need to be creative to analyze living flesh. Martin shows Beth his perfected Telepods by teleporting a kitten without harm. They become lovers, but Martin shows signs of his eventual mutation into a human-fly hybrid. Martin devises a potential cure for his condition, which involves swapping out his mutated genes for healthy human genes. Martin shelves this idea when he realizes the other person would be subject to a grotesque genetic disfigurement.


title: The Fly II

text: Eventually, Martin learns that Bartok has hidden cameras in his bungalow. Martin breaks into Bartok's records room, where he learns of his father's true fate. Bartok confronts Martin and explains that he is aware of and has been waiting for his inevitable mutation. Bartok reveals his plan to use Martin's body and the Telepods' potential for genetic manipulation for profit. Martin's insect genes fully awaken and his transformation into a human-insect hybrid begins, and he escapes from Bartok Industries. Bartok is unable to use the Telepods, as they are locked by a password. Martin also installed a computer virus which will erase the Telepods' programming if the wrong password is entered. Bartok orders a search for Martin.


title: The Fly II

text: Martin goes to Beth and explains the situation, and the two flee. They visit Veronica Quaife's old confidant, Stathis Borans (implied to have been told that Brundle's baby died in childbirth along with Veronica), who informs Martin that Seth Brundle died after trying to drag Veronica into the Telepod with him, and Veronica killed Seth with a shotgun. Stathis


title: The Fly II

text: confirms for Martin that the Telepods are his only chance for a cure, and he gives Beth and Martin his vehicle to aid their escape. Martin and Beth keep running, but Martin's physical and emotional changes become too much for Beth to handle, and she eventually surrenders them both to Bartok. Without revealing the password, Martin becomes enveloped in a cocoon. Bartok interrogates Beth for the password.


title: The Fly II

text: Shortly after, the fully-transformed Martin emerges from his cocoon and rampages through the Bartok facility, killing several members of Bartok's scientific staff (including Shepard and Jainway) as well as Bartok's security personnel. Martin breaks into Bay 17 and kills Scorby, Bartok's chief of security. Martin grabs Bartok, forces him to type in the computer password, "Dad", and drags Bartok and himself into a Telepod. Martin gestures Beth to activate the gene-swapping sequence, and Beth complies. When he and Bartok emerge, Martin is restored to a fully human form while Bartok is revealed to have been transformed into a deformed monstrosity. Bartok ends up kept in the same enclosure as the mutated dog; as he begins to eat swill from the dog’s dish, Bartok catches sight of a single housefly sitting on the dish’s edge.


title: The Fly II

text: In addition, Saffron Henderson briefly appears as Veronica Quaife, the role played by Geena Davis in the original film while archive footage of Jeff Goldblum, uncredited, shows him in the Seth Brundle role from the original film.


title: The Fly II

text: Geena Davis, who played Veronica Quaife in the first film, was replaced by Saffron Henderson for the sequel, as Davis refused to reprise her role due to her character's death in the first act disallowing the opportunity for character development. Keanu Reeves was offered the role of Brundle but turned it down as he disliked the script. Josh Brolin was passed after a failed audition for the role. "The Fly II" is an early entry in the filmography of Frank Darabont, who co-wrote the screenplay. Tom Sullivan worked as a sculptor for the film's visual effects.


title: The Fly II

text: The film was released on VHS by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and in 2000, the film was released on DVD as a double feature with "The Fly". The film received a standalone DVD release on October 5, 2004. In March 2017, Australian distribution company Via Vision Entertainment released a five-disc, region-free box set containing the original 1958 "The Fly", its sequels "Return of the Fly" and "Curse of the Fly", the 1986 version of "The Fly", and "The Fly II" on Blu-ray.


title: The Fly II

text: "The Fly II" grossed $20,021,322 at the US box office and a further $18,881,857 abroad, resulting in worldwide total of $38,903,179.


title: The Fly II

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 29% based on with a weighted average rating of 4.57/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: The Fly II

text: Janet Maslin from "The New York Times" gave the film a negative review, writing, "The only respect in which it matches Mr. Cronenberg's "Fly" is in its sheer repulsiveness, since this film degenerates into a series of slime-ridden, glop-oozing special effects in its final half hour." Richard Harrington from "The Washington Post" offered the film similar criticism, calling the film's script "flat", and criticized the film's special effects as being "clumsy". Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film his lowest rating, calling the film "Alternately dull and messy but mostly dull". David Hughes from "Empire Magazine" awarded the film 3/5 stars, writing, "Whilst this fly is not as tightly scripted or keenly directed as its parent, it does have pace, breathless tension and the sort of gross-out effects that rules out kebabs for some time after the credits have rolled." Ryan Lambie of Den of Geek wrote that while the film "wasn't particularly clever, ... as an exercise in pure, claret-stained entertainment, it deserves far more credit than it frequently receives".


title: The Fly II

text: Beginning in March 2015, IDW Publishing released a five-issue comic book miniseries titled "The Fly: Outbreak", written by Brandon Seifert.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The Piccadilly line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the north to the west of London. It has two branches, which split at Acton Town, and serves 53 stations. The line serves Heathrow Airport, and some of its stations are near tourist attractions such as Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace. The District and Metropolitan lines share some sections of track with the Piccadilly line. Printed in dark blue (officially "Corporate Blue", Pantone 072) on the Tube map, it is the fourth busiest line on the Underground network, with over 210 million passenger journeys in 2011/12.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The first section, between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith, was opened in 1906 as the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR). The station tunnels and buildings were designed by Leslie Green, featuring ox-blood terracotta facades with semi-circular windows on the first floor. When Underground Electric Railways of London (UERL) took over the line, it was renamed the Piccadilly line. Subsequent extensions were made to Cockfosters, Hounslow West and Uxbridge in the early 1930s, when many existing stations on the Uxbridge and Hounslow branches were rebuilt to designs by Charles Holden of the Adams, Holden & Pearson architectural practice. These were generally rectangular, with brick bases and large tiled windows, topped with a concrete slab roof. The western extensions took over certain existing District line services, which were fully withdrawn in 1964.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Stations in central London were rebuilt to cater for a higher volume of passenger traffic. To prepare for World War II, some stations were equipped with shelters and basic amenities, and others with blast walls. Construction of the Victoria line, the first section of which opened in 1968, helped to relieve congestion on the Piccadilly line; some sections of the Piccadilly had to be rerouted for cross-platform interchange with the new line. Several plans were made to extend the Piccadilly line to serve Heathrow Airport. The earliest approval was given in 1967, and the Heathrow extension opened in stages between 1975 and 1977. This served only Terminals 2 and 3 and the former Terminal 1. The line was extended again twice, to Terminal 4 via a loop in 1986, and to Terminal 5 directly from the main terminal station in 2008.


title: Piccadilly line

text: This line has two depots, at Northfields and Cockfosters, with a group of sidings at several locations. There are crossovers at a number of locations, some of which allow trains to switch to different lines. The Piccadilly line's electric power was formerly generated at Lots Road Power Station. This was taken out of use in 2003, and the line is now powered from the National Grid network. 1973 Stock trains are used on the line, 78 of which are needed to operate a 24 trains per hour (tph) service (a train every minutes) during peak hours. These trains are due to be replaced by New Tube for London (NTfL) trains in the 2020s.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The Piccadilly line is a long north–west line, with two western branches splitting at Acton Town, serving 53 stations. At the northern end, Cockfosters is a four-platform three-track terminus, and the line runs at surface level to just south of Oakwood. Southgate station is in a tunnel, with tunnel portals to the north and south. Due to the difference in terrain, a viaduct carries the tracks through Arnos Park to Arnos Grove. The line then descends into twin tube tunnels, passing through Wood Green, Finsbury Park and central London. The central area contains stations close to tourist attractions, such as the London Transport Museum, Harrods, Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus. The tunnel ends east of Barons Court, where the line continues west, parallel to the District line, to Acton Town. A flying junction, in use since 10 February 1910, separates trains going to the Heathrow branch from the Uxbridge branch.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The Heathrow branch remains at surface level until the eastern approach to Hounslow West station, where it enters a cut-and-cover tunnel. West of Hatton Cross, the line enters tube tunnels to Heathrow Airport and branches to the Terminal 4 loop or to a terminus at Terminal 5. On the Uxbridge branch, the line shares tracks with the District line between Acton Town and south of North Ealing. Traversing terrain with cuttings and embankments, it continues to Uxbridge, sharing tracks with the Metropolitan line between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge. The distance between Cockfosters and Uxbridge is .


title: Piccadilly line

text: The Piccadilly line began as the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), one of several railways controlled by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), whose chief director was Charles Tyson Yerkes, although he died before the first section of the line opened. It currently runs on tracks built by The GNP&BR, the District Railway (DR) and the Metropolitan Railway (Met), and received major extensions in the 1930s and 1970s.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The GNP&BR was formed from the merger of two earlier, but unbuilt, tube-railway companies taken over in 1901 by Yerkes's consortium: the Great Northern & Strand Railway (GN&SR) and the Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR). The GN&SR's and B&PCR's separate routes were linked with an additional section between and . A section of the DR's scheme for a deep-level tube line between and was also added in order to complete the route. This finalised route, between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith stations, was formally opened on 15 December 1906. On 30 November 1907, the short branch from Holborn to the Strand (later renamed ) opened; it had been planned as the last section of the GN&SR before the amalgamation with the B&PCR.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Initial ridership growth was low due to high use of new electric trams and motor buses. Financial stability was an issue, and as a result the company heavily promoted their railways via a new management team. UERL also agreed with other independent railway companies such as the Central London Railway (CLR, now part of the Central line) to jointly advertise a combined network known as the Underground. On 1 July 1910, the GNP&BR and the other UERL-owned tube railways (the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway and the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway) were merged by private Act of Parliament to become the "London Electric Railway Company" (LER). The Underground railways still suffered financial issues, and to address this, the London Passenger Transport Board was established on 1 July 1933.


title: Piccadilly line

text: There were significant station layout changes in the 1910s and 1920s. On 4 October 1911, Earl's Court had new escalators installed connecting the District and Piccadilly lines. They were the first to be installed on the Underground. On 10 December 1928, a rebuilt Piccadilly Circus station, designed by Charles Holden, was opened. This included a new booking hall located below ground and eleven escalators, replacing the original lifts.


title: Piccadilly line

text: One of the shafts at Holloway Road station was used as an experiment for spiral escalators, but never used. An experiment to encourage passengers to step on the escalator three at a time at Manor House station was trialled. It failed due to opposition and potential dangers pointed out by the public.


title: Piccadilly line

text: While early plans to serve Wood Green (specifically Alexandra Palace) existed since the 1890s as part of the GN&SR, this section to Finsbury Park was later dropped from the GNP&BR proposal in 1902 when the GN&SR was merged with the B&PCR. In 1902, as part of an agreement for taking over the GN&SR, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) imposed a sanction on Yerkes to abandon the section north of Finsbury Park and they would construct the terminus below ground. Finsbury Park remained as an overcrowded terminus of the line, and was described as "intolerable". Many passengers arriving at both stations had to change onto buses, trams, and suburban rail services to complete their journeys further north. The GNR attempted to address this issue by considering electrification several times, but to no avail due to shortage of funds. Meanwhile, the LER proposed an extension in 1920 but was overruled by the GNR, which was widely regarded as "unreasonable". In 1923, a petition by the Middlesex Federation of Ratepayers to repeal the 1902 parliamentary act emerged. It was reported that a "fierce exchange of arguments" occurred during a parliament session in March 1924 to request this change. Frank Pick, as the new assistant managing director of the Underground, distributed photographs of the congestion at Finsbury Park to the press. All of this pressure finally prompted the government to initiate "The North and North-East London Traffic Inquiry", with initial reports only recommending a one-station extension to Manor House. The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), being the successor of the GNR, was placed in the position of electrifying its own services or withdrawing its veto of an extension of the Piccadilly line. With funds still being insufficient to electrify the railway, the LNER reluctantly agreed to the latter. An extension was highly likely at this stage, based on a study in October 1925 by the London & Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Pick, together with the Underground board, began working on the extension proposal. Much pressure was also received from a few districts such as Tottenham and Harringay, but it was decided that the optimal route would be the midpoint of the GNR and the Hertford Line. This was backed by the committee, and parliamentary approval for the extension was obtained on 4 June 1930, under the "London Electric Metropolitan District Central London and City and South London Railway Companies Act, 1930". Funding was obtained from legislation under the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act instead of the Trade Facilities Act. The extension would pass through Manor House, Wood Green and Southgate, ending at Enfield West (now Oakwood); based on the absence of property development along the line. In November 1929, the projected terminus was shifted further north to Cockfosters to accommodate a larger depot. It was estimated that ridership on the extension, which would cost £4.4 million, would be 36 million passengers a year. In addition to Enfield West, stations were designated at Southgate, Arnos Grove, Bounds Green, Wood Green, Turnpike Lane, and Manor House. Bounds Green station was almost cancelled in order to improve journey times. A more expensive provision was rejected, which included construction of a third track between Finsbury Park and Wood Green and an additional station at St. Ann's Road.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Tunnel rings, cabling and concrete were produced in Northern England, while unemployed industrial workers there helped in the construction of the extension. Construction of the extension started quickly, with the boring of the twin tube tunnels between Arnos Grove and Finsbury Park proceeding at the rate of a mile per month. Twenty-two tunnelling shields were used for the tunnels, and tunnel diameters were slightly larger than the old section, at . Sharp curves were also avoided to promote higher average speeds on the extension. Platforms long were originally planned for each station to fit 8-car trains, but were cut short to when built. Some stations were also built with wider platform tunnels to cater to expected high patronage. To connect with buses and trams, interchange stations were provided with exits which led passengers directly to the bus terminal or tram stop from the subsurface ticket hall. The exits were purposed to improve connections which avoided chaotic passenger flow such as at Finsbury Park. Wood Green was an exception due to engineering difficulties, with the ticket hall at street level instead. Ventilation shafts were provided at Finsbury Park Tennis Courts, Colina Road and Nightingale Road, supplementing the existing fans within the stations. Provisions for future branch lines to Enfield and Tottenham were made at Wood Green and Manor House respectively, both to have reversing sidings. This had since changed, with only a reversing siding built at Wood Green and no provision for the branch line. Arnos Grove was built to have four platforms facing three tracks for trains to reverse regularly, with seven stabling sidings instead of one reversing siding and two platforms.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Most of the tunnelling works were completed by October 1931, with the Wood Green and Bounds Green station tunnels done by the end of the year. The first phase of the extension to Arnos Grove opened on 19 September 1932, without ceremony. The line was further extended to Enfield West on 13 March 1933 and finally to Cockfosters on 31 July 1933, again without ceremonies. The total length of the extension was . Free tickets were distributed to residents on the first days of service on each extension. Initial ridership was 25 million at the end of 1933, which sharply increased to 70 million by 1951. Despite there being no official opening ceremonies, the Prince of Wales visited the extension on 14 February 1933.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The Hounslow West (then Hounslow Barracks) extension of the Piccadilly line, together with the Uxbridge extension, aimed to improve services on the District line which at the time were serving both branches from Acton Town (then Mill Hill Park). The Uxbridge extension followed along existing routes on the DR and Met. The DR opened a short spur from Ealing Common to South Harrow in June 1903. The Met opened its extension to Uxbridge in July 1904. Through trains of the DR were eventually extended to Uxbridge on 1 March 1910, henceforth sharing tracks with the Met between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The viaduct from Studland Road (now Studland Street) Junction west of Hammersmith to Turnham Green was quadrupled on 3 November 1911. The London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) used the northern pair of tracks while the District Railway used the southern pair. The LER proposed an extension in November 1912 to Richmond due to available capacity to the west and the fact that passenger interchanges were large at Hammersmith. It would connect with the L&SWR tracks at Turnham Green. It was approved as the "London Electric Railway Act, 1913" on 15 August 1913, but World War I resulted in no works done on the extension. A Parliamentary report of 1919 recommended through running to Richmond and Ealing. The Richmond extension plan was revived in 1922 by Lord Ashfield, the Underground's chairman. It was decided that the Piccadilly line extension was favourable over the CLR's as it was cheaper and had more capacity available. By 1925, the District line was running out of capacity west of Hammersmith, where services were headed to South Harrow, Hounslow Barracks, Richmond and Ealing Broadway. Demand was also low on the South Harrow branch because of infrequent services and competition among other rail lines in the vicinity of each station. This prompted the Piccadilly line extension to be an express service between Hammersmith and Acton Town, with the future Heathrow Airport extension safeguarded in 40 years' time. The Piccadilly line would run on the inner pair of tracks, and the District line on the outer. Permission was granted to quadruple tracks to Acton Town in 1926 in conjunction with permit renewal for the extension. The Richmond extension never happened, but provisions allocated would allow this option to be revisited later. Extensions would instead be to Hounslow Barracks and South Harrow, taking over DR services to the latter, with an estimated cost of £2.3 million. In 1930, unsuccessful negotiations were made between LER and the Met to extend Piccadilly line trains to Rayners Lane for passengers to change trains.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In 1929, quadrupling was to extend to Northfields for express trains to terminate there. This work was completed on 18 December 1932. Overall works for the extension began in 1931, approximately a year after permission was granted and funded under the "Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act" of 1929. The Studland Road Junction area was partially rebuilt, with some of the old viaducts retained to date. The junctions diverging to Richmond were reconfigured at Turnham Green. Reversing facilities were initially designated at the latter, but these were not built. Trial runs of Piccadilly line trains began on 27 June 1932. On 4 July 1932, services were extended to South Harrow, which replaced DR services. Northfields services were introduced on 9 January 1933, and on 13 March, were extended to Hounslow West. On 1 July 1933, the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was formed, which included the Met, the DR and LER. The board decided that there was sufficient demand to run through trains to Uxbridge due to rapidly developing suburbs along the line. The extension of Piccadilly line trains to Uxbridge began on 23 October 1933, but with many trains still reversing at South Harrow. By then, most Piccadilly line trains continued beyond Hammersmith, and District line trains to Hounslow were reduced to off-peak shuttles to Acton Town. An enhanced off-peak Piccadilly line service was introduced on 29 April 1935, cutting off-peak District line services down to the Acton Town–South Acton shuttle. South Harrow short trips proved to be an inconvenience. The solution was to move reversing facilities to Rayners Lane. A new reversing siding was built there in 1935, which allowed some peak hour trains to terminate beginning in May 1936. Regular reversals were fully implemented in October 1943. Peak-hour District line trains to Hounslow were fully withdrawn on 9 October 1964.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In conjunction with the new extensions, several stations were considered for closure to increase overall line speeds. Down Street closed on 21 May 1932, Brompton Road on 29 July 1934, and York Road on 17 September 1932. All three stations were lightly used, with Down Street and Brompton Road replaced by relocated entrances of Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge respectively. Knightsbridge's new below-ground ticket hall required stairwells from the entrance, one of which took over part of the Barclays Bank branch there. Both of the latter two stations retained their existing platforms, but the access from the surface was reconstructed with their entrances closer to the closed stations. These new entrances were provided with escalators, which replaced the lifts, improving passenger circulation. The Aldwych branch was deemed unprofitable, and in 1929 an extension to Waterloo was approved, costed at £750,000. No progress was made on the extension. Dover Street (now Green Park), Leicester Square and Holborn stations received new sets of escalators, with the lattermost having four in a single shaft. These were completed in the early 1930s. As part of the 1935–40 New Works Programme, Earl's Court was largely reconstructed at street level. At King's Cross St Pancras, the Piccadilly and Northern lines were finally connected via new escalators, albeit with construction delayed due to financial difficulties. As a result, Russell Square station retained its lifts.


title: Piccadilly line

text: To prepare for World War II, several stations had blast walls added. Others, such as Green Park, Knightsbridge and King's Cross St Pancras, had floodgates installed. The line was also involved in the evacuation of 200,000 children, by transporting them towards both ends of the line, then transferring them to mainline trains to continue their journeys to different country distribution hubs. Some underground stations were fitted with bunk beds, toilets and first aid facilities, and sewerage. The disused Down Street was converted to an underground bunker for government use. Other stations such as Holborn and Earl's Court also had essential wartime uses. The former had the Aldwych branch platforms as the wartime engineering quarters whilst the branch service was temporarily closed. The latter produced Torpedo Data Computers at the transfer concourse between the District and Piccadilly lines. Aldwych station was used as storage for British Museum exhibits. On 13 October 1940, a bomb explosion caused the westbound platform tunnel at Bounds Green station to collapse, killing nineteen shelterers. Train services were suspended for two months.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In preparation for the Victoria line, cross-platform interchange was to be provided at a few stations, which included Finsbury Park on the Piccadilly line. This meant that the Piccadilly line had to be realigned there, and the Northern City line platforms, being parallel to the existing Piccadilly line platforms, were to be transferred to the pair of lines. The Northern City line would be redirected to the surface platforms. The westbound Piccadilly line track would be rerouted onto one of these platforms, with the southbound Victoria line using the other. The northbound Victoria line would reuse the old westbound Piccadilly line platform and a part of the old tunnels, with the Piccadilly line diversion tunnels spanning .


title: Piccadilly line

text: Construction of the diversion began in October 1964, with the Northern City line having a temporary closure. At the northern junction, step plate junctions were built to divert the existing line when the new tunnels were complete. They were fitted into the original Northern City line tunnels which had a greater tunnel diameter until two running tunnels were able to merge. The old and unused running tunnel was disconnected and blocked off when the junction tunnel was near its completion. Alteration of temporary points junctions and shifting of signals completed the diversion tunnels. In the south, the Piccadilly would be diverted to descend sharply under the northbound Victoria line tunnel, and then ascending to the original level which had a difference of approximately north of Arsenal station. The old westbound tunnel had to be supported on a trestle for works to be done. The trestle and old tracks were entirely removed once the diversion was ready for switchover. New tracks were laid at a rapid rate which were done in about thirteen hours on 3 October 1965. Both lines were connected via junctions south of Finsbury Park for stock movement and engineering trains. It was intended for Green Park to have cross-platform interchange, but was deemed impossible due to the lines crossing at right angles. The Victoria line opened on 1 September 1968 from Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington via Finsbury Park, and on 7 March 1969 to Warren Street via King's Cross St Pancras, providing relief to the Piccadilly line.


title: Piccadilly line

text: To cater to the rapid growth of road traffic to Heathrow Airport, several rail lines were considered to serve the airport. An average increment of 1 million passengers a year between 1953 and 1973, and rising issues with airline coach services from major terminals due to location, traffic congestion, larger aircraft capacity and increasing leisure travel further increased the need for public transport connections. Other than the Piccadilly line extension from Hounslow West, a Southern Railway spur (section now transferred to part of South Western Railway) from Feltham was also contemplated. These schemes were brought into parliamentary discussion in November 1966, and were approved with the Royal Assent as the "London Transport Act 1967" and "British Railways Act 1967" respectively on 27 July 1967. Partial government funding was obtained in April 1972 for the Piccadilly line extension, and the estimated cost of construction was £12.3 million.


title: Piccadilly line

text: On 27 April 1971, a construction ceremony was launched by Sir Desmond Plummer, leader of the Greater London Council, by bulldozing "the first sod". Platforms at Hounslow West had to be relocated below-ground to the north of the existing for the new track alignment. The 1931 ticket hall was retained, with connections to the new platforms. A cut-and-cover excavation method was used between Hounslow West and Hatton Cross, a new station on the extension. This 2-mile section had a shallow trench dug, with the tunnel walls supported by intersecting concrete piles. The line had to cross River Crane just east of Hatton Cross, therefore it emerges briefly on a bridge, with the two portals having concrete retaining walls. Deep tube tunnels were bored from Hatton Cross to Heathrow Central (now Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3). On 19 July 1975, the line was extended to Hatton Cross. The Heathrow Central extension was inaugurated by the Queen around noon on 16 December 1977, with revenue services commencing at 3pm.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In the 1970s, planning was already underway for a fourth terminal for the airport, and its location was to be to the southeast of the existing terminals. As the Piccadilly line's route to the existing terminals was out of place, a loop track was adopted as the best method to serve the new terminal. The westbound track between Hatton Cross and Heathrow Central would be retained for emergency services. Permissions for constructing for the loop was approved and received Royal Assent under the "London Transport Act 1981" on 30 October 1981. On 19 July 1982, the original location of the station and track alignment were altered to compensate for the British Airport Authority (BAA) to finish the fourth terminal building which was behind schedule. Construction of the extension began on 9 February 1983, with an estimated cost of £24.6 million. Tunnelling for the loop was completed in seventeen months. It was expected that the extension would open with the new terminal. However, the terminal opening was delayed, with the loop service completed and commissioned on 4 November 1985. The terminal and station were finally opened a few months later on 1 April 1986, by the Prince and then Princess of Wales. Regular traffic began twelve days later with trains serving Terminal 4 via a one-way loop to Terminals 1,2,3. The station only has a single platform, the only one with this configuration on the Piccadilly line.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Terminal 5 required another extension, funded by BAA. However, its proposed alignment caused an issue: it was reported that London Underground was unhappy with the terminal's location on the site of the old Perry Oaks sludge works which was originally intended for Terminal 4. It was now impossible for all three terminals to be served on the same route, and the final solution was to have twin tunnels serving Terminal 5 from Terminals 1,2,3. From 7 January 2005 until 17 September 2006, the loop via Terminal 4 was closed to allow this connection to be built. Terminals 1,2,3 became a temporary terminus; shuttle buses served Terminal 4 from the Hatton Cross bus station. Part of the junction between the through and loop tracks needed to be rebuilt. The Terminal 5 project team shut down two aircraft stands from Terminal 3 so that an access shaft could be constructed. The new junction was then built into a concrete box which connected all underground tunnels. The station and terminal were opened on 27 March 2008, splitting west-bound Piccadilly line services into two: one via the Terminal 4 loop, another direct to Terminal 5.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Plans to extend the Aldwych branch south to Waterloo was revived several times during the station's life. The extension was considered in 1919 and 1948, but no progress towards constructing the link was made.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In the years after the Second World War, a series of preliminary plans for relieving congestion on the London Underground had considered various east–west routes through the Aldwych area, although other priorities meant that these were never proceeded with. In March 1965, a British Rail and London Transport joint planning committee published "A Railway Plan for London", which proposed a new tube railway, the Fleet line (later renamed the Jubilee line), to join the Bakerloo line at then run via Aldwych and into the City of London before heading into south-east London. An interchange was proposed at Aldwych and a second recommendation of the report was the revival of the link from Aldwych to Waterloo. London Transport had already sought parliamentary approval to construct tunnels from Aldwych to Waterloo in November 1964, and in August 1965, parliamentary powers were granted. Detailed planning took place, although public spending cuts led to postponement of the scheme in 1967 before tenders were invited.


title: Piccadilly line

text: With the Aldwych branch receiving no extensions, it remained a lightly used shuttle service from Holborn. The branch was considered for closure many times, but it survived. Saturday services were fully withdrawn on 5 August 1962. Maintenance costs of replacing the aged lifts were high at over £3 million, which failed to meet safety standards at the time. In August 1993, a public inquiry was held for closure of the short branch line. On 30 September 1994, the branch was closed to traffic. The disused station is now used for commercial filming and as a training facility.


title: Piccadilly line

text: On 18 November 1987, the large King's Cross fire broke out, the incident being near the Northern/Piccadilly line escalators which killed 31 people. As a result, wooden escalators were replaced at all Underground stations. The Piccadilly line platforms remained open, but with the escalators to the ticket hall closed for repairs. Access was temporarily via the Victoria line or Midland City platforms. New escalators were fully installed on 27 February 1989.


title: Piccadilly line

text: On 7 July 2005, a Piccadilly line train was attacked by suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay in the day's London bombings. The blast occurred at 08:50 BST while the train was between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square. It was part of a co-ordinated Islamist terrorist attack on London's transport network, and was synchronised with three other attacks: two on the Circle line and one on a bus at Tavistock Square. The Piccadilly line bomb led to the largest number of fatalities, with 26 people reported killed. Owing to it being a deep-level line, evacuation of station users and access for the emergency services proved difficult. Shuttle services were introduced between Hyde Park Corner and the Heathrow loop, between Acton Town and Rayners Lane, and between Arnos Grove and Cockfosters. Full service was restored on 4 August, four weeks after the bombing.


title: Piccadilly line

text: On 15 December 2006, a 100-year celebration of the Piccadilly line was launched. A birthday card was revealed by Tim O'Toole, then London Underground Managing Director at Leicester Square station.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Most of the deep level stations opened in the first phase between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith were built to a design by Leslie Green. This consisted of two-storey steel-framed buildings faced with dark oxblood red glazed terracotta blocks, with wide semi-circular windows on the upper floor. Earl's Court and Barons Court stations was built with a red brick building by Harry Wharton Ford, with semicircular windows on the second level and embedded names of the railways which operated through the station. Both station buildings are Grade II listed, and this building design at the former replaced a wooden hut building.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Extensions of the Piccadilly line towards the west and north in the 1930s had new stations designed by Charles Holden of Adams, Holden & Pearson architectural practice. These designs were inspired by modern architecture seen in a 1930 trip to several European Countries.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Several stations on the western extension originally built by the District Railway were reconstructed. The new designs used brick, concrete and glass to construct simple geometrical shapes, such as cylinders and rectangles. The first prototype station was Sudbury Town station, which has a brick cuboid box topped with a concrete slab roof for the main structure, with tall windows above the entrances. This design was replicated across many other stations. Due to the workload, some stations' designs were carried out as collaborations with the Underground's own Architect, Stanley Heaps (Boston Manor, Osterley, Ealing Common and Hounslow West), or architects from other practices (Reginald Uren for Rayner's Lane) or entirely by another practice in Holden's style (Felix Lander for Park Royal). The new stations built for the northern extension were also part of the design schemes undertaken by Holden. Southgate was distinctively different, with a round base carrying a cylindrical panel of clerestory windows, topped by an illuminated feature with a bronze ball. The ticket halls had passimeters, which functioned as free-standing ticket booths. Most of them ceased to be used when automatic ticket gates were introduced, although some have been converted for retail use. Many of these Holden-designed stations are listed buildings, Oakwood, Southgate, and Arnos Grove being among the early receivers in 1971.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Stations in Central London were modernised. Green Park received a new shelter at the southern entrance; Piccadilly Circus had its ticket hall moved below street level. Both of these changes were designed by Holden, with the latter's station ticket hall having artwork commemorating Frank Pick added in 2016. Green Park also was built with a new entrance at a corner of Devonshire House, which has Portland Stone clad steel frames. It features Graeco-Roman details, and is Grade II listed. Some stations kept their original buildings. South Ealing, where a temporary wooden station ticket hall was constructed when the line was quadrupled, was an anomaly; a modern station was not provided until the 1980s.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Green's stations such as Caledonian Road have bands of tiles arching overhead on the curved platform ceilings and above the tracks spaced apart. Along the platform walls, geometrical patterns of tiles were arranged in a horizontal band; varying among stations. Arc lighting was complemented with incandescent lamps to illuminate the platforms. Signage decorations, also designed by Green, present spelt out the station name in letters high. Stations on the northern extension had particular biscuit (square) tiles on platform walls, with different frieze colours at each station. A few stations like Southgate and Bounds Green have art deco uplighters on escalators and the lower landings. Floodlighting was used considerably to provide a spacious ambience. Ventilation ducts were by the platforms walls, sealed with bronze art deco style grilles. Oakwood was built with a concrete canopy, with roof lights and cylindrical light fittings designed by Heaps.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The line from Cockfosters to Heathrow and South Harrow is controlled from a control centre at South Kensington, which replaced the old Earl's Court control centre, which was shared with the District line. Rayners Lane signal cabin is responsible for signalling the Piccadilly line from just northwest of South Harrow to Uxbridge, as well as the Metropolitan line joining at Rayners Lane. The signalling system is expected to be upgraded in line with the Deep Tube upgrade, which will increase line frequencies up to 33 tph. Trains may also be able to make a permanent additional stop at Turnham Green following this upgrade.


title: Piccadilly line

text: When the line was opened from Finsbury Park to Hammersmith, its signalling system was identical to the Bakerloo and District lines. Small cabins at each location of crossover installed controlled the signals there. Single lamps displayed track clearance in the form of green or red, with variations of yellow at difficult-to-spot locations. This equipment was supplied by Westinghouse and operated using compressed air. The exception was between West Kensington and Hammersmith, where it was controlled by District Railway signal boxes, and had semaphore signals instead. The Piccadilly line extensions resulted in resignalling on tracks west of Barons Court. Signal cabins were adjusted and new ones were added at Hammersmith, Acton Town and Northfields. A mixture of semaphore and colour-light signals were used on the four-track section. Signalling was redone on the new Uxbridge branch.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Speed control was introduced at several stations to enhance the signalling system after World War II. This enabled a train to proceed slowly into an occupied platform without stopping in front of another before it departed, thus improving headways. The last semaphore signal, at Ealing Common, was replaced in November 1953. A control room was built at Earl's Court to centralise supervision of most of the line signalling in the 1960s, while Rayners Lane signal cabin was, and still is, the main control centre of the Rayners Lane to Uxbridge portion; shared with the Metropolitan line. 1930s automatic signalling equipment was updated in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The UERL built a large power station that would be capable of providing power for the District line and the underground lines planned. Work began in 1902 at Lots Road, by Chelsea Creek, and in February 1905 Lots Road Power Station began generating electricity at , conveyed by high-voltage cables to substations that converted this to approximately . On the Piccadilly line, electricity was transmitted via underground ducts to Earl's Court, which was then distributed to different substations. Power supply for the Cockfosters extension was initially generated by the North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Company at Wood Green. It was later supplied by Lots Road station. The National Grid network took over the supply on the Ravenscourt Park to Uxbridge and Northfields section. Lots Road was permanently closed on 31 October 2003, being also replaced by power supply from the National Grid Network. Emergency lighting, powered by batteries, is available at every station, with emergency supply from a support power station in Greenwich.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The line has two depots, at Cockfosters and Northfields. The former site is near Trent Park, and was the preferred site over Oakwood, which was smaller, and its only access point was south of the station. Subsequently, Oakwood was built with an island platform, with its intended three-track terminus layout moved to Cockfosters. Light maintenance and cleaning of trains is done here, with the latter site, being the main depot, having train maintenance facilities. Northfields depot is also double-ended, with access from just west of Boston Manor station and Northfields station. For it to be built, the latter station had to be rebuilt nearer to South Ealing station. The depot was opened earlier than the Hounslow extension, on 4 July 1932, and fully electrified two months later.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Single sidings are placed at Rayners Lane, Oakwood, Down Street (Hyde Park Corner), and Wood Green. Arnos Grove, Acton Town, South Harrow, Uxbridge, Hammersmith and Heathrow Terminal 5 have more than one siding for reversing trains or storing them. Four crossovers were built for the initial line opening in 1906, Hounslow Central on 3 March 1923, and double crossovers at South Harrow were added in the 1930s.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Crossovers with other lines are present on the Piccadilly line. A connecting tunnel from the northbound Piccadilly line at King's Cross St Pancras to the northbound Northern line Bank branch was constructed in 1927. At Finsbury Park, a set of crossovers in the south were retained where trains can cross over onto the Victoria line.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Lillie Bridge was the main depot when the Piccadilly line was initially opened. Trains entering service on the line had to reverse and enter the District line tracks first via West Kensington. When the Piccadilly and District line tracks were realigned in the 1930s, access points into the depot had to be altered. When the line was extended to Northfields and Cockfosters in 1933, all trains except seven were stabled at the newer depot. Once the Cockfosters depot was opened, Lillie Bridge was converted to a maintenance depot, where it housed only engineers' and materials trains.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Most original deep-level stations were installed with lifts and stairs, with some descending directly down to platform level. Many of these were given an overhaul in the 1930s with escalators replacing lifts for quicker passenger flow. Underground stations on the Cockfosters extension were built with access mainly via escalators; each station shaft are able to fit three escalators, but some stations had two escalators with a stairwell by the middle. Escalators at Bounds Green, Wood Green and Manor House travel at per minute, which were then the quickest on the network. All of the original lifts were either replaced by new equipment or were converted to escalators. Alperton was the only above ground station to have an escalator, which was transferred over from the Festival of Britain, but was decommissioned in 1988. Stations such as Green Park and King's Cross St Pancras were installed with new lifts to provide step-free access to every platform by the 2012 Summer Olympics.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Journey times on the Piccadilly line are usually around an hour and a half. Train dwell times are slightly longer at some stations, such as at Heathrow Terminals 4 and 5 stations. The former requires 8 minutes, while the latter needs 7 minutes to coordinate with the alternate Heathrow service schedule. The busiest section, as of 2016, is between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square. This is expected to expand, between Holloway Road and Holborn in the 2040s. The central section between Earl's Court and King's Cross St Pancras is in Fare Zone 1, to Manor House and Turnham Green in Zone 2, and to Bounds Green, Park Royal and Northfields in Zone 3; to Southgate, Sudbury Hill and Hounslow Central in Zone 4, to Cockfosters, Hatton Cross and Eastcote in Zone 5, and to Uxbridge and Heathrow Terminals in Zone 6. 79 trains are required to operate a 24 trains per hour (tph) peak-hour service on the line, while typical off-peak services are generally as follows (as of 6 July 2020):


title: Piccadilly line

text: Trains also make an additional stop at in the early mornings and late evenings. Night Tube services have operated every 10 minutes between Cockfosters and Heathrow Terminal 5 since 16 December 2016. No Night Tube services operate to Heathrow Terminal 4 or Uxbridge. During disruptions, Piccadilly line trains may run on District line tracks, stopping all stations between Acton Town and Hammersmith.


title: Piccadilly line

text: On 11 October 1909, peak-hour services were altered to have trains skipping certain stops to improve journey times. Trains were marked with "Non Stop", which were deemed unpopular and ambiguous among passengers. Illuminated signs were added on platforms in 1932 to address this issue. Pairs of stations were the norm, such as Holloway Road and York Road, and Caledonian Road and Gillespie Road. After World War I, Covent Garden, Russell Square, South Kensington, Brompton Road and Gloucester Road were among the stations skipped. Boston Manor, South Ealing, North Ealing and Barons Court were included into these patterns by 1938. Skip-stop services were discontinued in June 1947.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In 1930, during the planning of the northward and westward extensions, a 30tph peak-hour service was proposed between Wood Green and Turnham Green. This was preferred over an alternate skip-stop service through Bounds Green. When the Piccadilly line was initially extended to Northfields in 1933, South Ealing was skipped. It was eventually served on 29 April 1935 by off-peak trains, and peak services in May 1942.


title: Piccadilly line

text: When the Piccadilly line shared its storage of trains with the District line at Lillie Bridge Depot, some trains started and ended their service at West Kensington; a few of these ran empty between West Kensington and Hammersmith. These services ceased on 27 October 1991.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The six-car 1973 tube stocks provide services on the Piccadilly line, which were built between 1974 and 1977 by Metro-Cammell. These trains were built longer than the 1959 stock trains to accommodate more luggage space and speed up journey times with more comfort. As of 2020, their livery is of standard London Underground corporate of blue, white and red. They were previously unpainted, exposing the aluminium alloy material. Traction voltage is at current powered by the third and fourth rail. The first of these trains entered service on 18 August 1975. They were refurbished by Bombardier from 1995 to 2000 in Wakefield, Yorkshire. Changes included the removal of transverse seating, strap hangers replaced with grab bars, new floor material and a full repaint into London Underground's corporate livery. A refurbished carriage on one train was first seen in service on 20 January 1991 to test the new interior concept.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In the late 1990s, the Labour government initiated a public–private partnership (PPP) to reverse years of underinvestment in London Underground. Tube Lines planned to order 93 new Piccadilly line trains, which would enter service by 2014. In January 2007, Tube Lines started the process of ordering new Piccadilly line trains, by querying if train manufacturers would be interested in supplying them. Contract award was anticipated for 2008, and trains would enter service on the Piccadilly line in 2014. However, TfL bought out the Tube Lines consortium after cost overruns in 2010, formally ending the PPP.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In the mid 2010s, TfL began a process of ordering new rolling stock to replace trains on the Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines. A feasibility study into the new trains showed that new generation trains and re-signalling could increase capacity on the Piccadilly line by 60%, with 36 trains per hour.


title: Piccadilly line

text: In June 2018, the Siemens Mobility Inspiro design was selected. These trains will have an open gangway design, wider doorways, air conditioning and the ability to run automatically with a new signalling system. However, TfL could only afford to order 94 trains at a cost of £1.5bn, and not the cost of resignalling and automating the line. Half of the trains will be built in Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire. Trains are expected to enter service in 2025.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The line was previously worked by the 1906 gate stock, which were manufactured in France and Hungary. The carriages were connected to form three, four or five-car trains, and were designed to have a maximum of six cars per train. Built with steel as its main material, the interiors were covered by fireproof mahogany veneer. Six-car trains were implemented in 1917. Additional cars were ordered and brought into service between 1920 and 1921 to combat shortage of capacity. In late 1920s, plans were developed to replace these outdated stocks. Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Company (Metro-Cammell's predecessor) was to build standard tube stocks, which were delivered within 1928 and 1929. Another batch of these were constructed in Feltham by the Union Construction company. All the gate stocks were decommissioned in June 1929. The new standard tube stocks have some wider doors on trailer cars and extra doors on the motor car. All doors are now air-operated. In 1929, it was suggested that a new prototype of tube stock should include three double doors on each side. These seven-car trains, also standard tube stocks, had carriages at least one foot longer. They were made to be lighter, and had better interior lighting. These new trains were completed in two periods, 1931 and 1934, which costed £1.20 million in total.


title: Piccadilly line

text: Due to ridership increasing by on the Uxbridge branch between 1931 and 1938, Piccadilly line trains were packed with passengers. New experimental trains were brought into service in 1936, which were formed of four or six cars. These trains had their control equipment (of seven different types from four different manufacturers) placed under the car floor, which enabled more space for passengers on both motor cars. While boarding times were decreased, some of the designs of control equipment were said to be less reliable than others. Nevertheless, they were a prototype for the design of the 1938 stock. As part of the 1935–40 New Works Programme, the latter tube stock was introduced onto the Piccadilly line, and were regarded as the most advanced tube stock at the time. Its interiors featured art deco lighting, depicted similar to a 1930s stylish restaurant. As a safety measure for World War II, trains initially had their lights switched off at night. It was later amended to illuminate trains with dim blue lamps, and then, largely enclosed reading lamps. Patronage on the line increased greatly after the war, which meant additional trains were needed. New 1938 stocks, together with the experimental trains were redone to form as a fleet of seven-car 1949 stock, in operation from 1952.


title: Piccadilly line

text: New test trains were manufactured again in the 1950s, and three prototype trains, branded as the 1956 stock, were trialled on the Piccadilly line in 1957 and 1958. These new trains would replace most of the 1938 tube stocks. It was successful, and 76 seven-car trains were placed on order as the 1959 stock. These were to be built by Metro-Cammell, with its first train entering service on 14 December 1959. The standard stocks were withdrawn in 1964, and the 1938 stocks were slowly taken out of service due to age. The 1959 stocks were gradually transferred to the Northern line between November 1975 and October 1979, being replaced by the 1973 stock trains; the last of the latter coming into service on 5 October 1979.


title: Piccadilly line

text: A few 1938 trains were preserved, and in June 2011, one of these trains made a few shuttle trips on the line as part of an event in conjunction with Father's Day.


title: Piccadilly line

text: The Piccadilly line is to be upgraded under the New Tube for London scheme, involving new trains as well as new signalling, increasing the line's capacity by some and reducing journey times by one fifth. Bids for new rolling stock were originally submitted in 2008. However, after the acquisition of Tube Lines by Transport for London in June 2010, this order was cancelled and the upgrade postponed.


title: Piccadilly line

text: LUL then invited Alstom, Bombardier and Siemens Mobility to develop a new concept of lightweight, low-energy, semi-articulated train for the deep-level lines, provisionally called "Evo" (for 'evolution'). Siemens publicised an outline design featuring air-conditioning and battery power to enable the train to run on to the next station if third and fourth rail power were lost. It would have a lower floor and higher passenger capacity than the present tube stock.


title: Piccadilly line

text: There would be a weight saving of 30 tonnes, and the trains would be more energy-efficient with air-conditioning included, or more energy-efficient without it. Siemens Mobility was awarded a £1.5 billion contract in June 2018 to produce the new trains at a planned factory in Goole, East Yorkshire.