The 1996 stock was ordered for the opening of the Jubilee Line Extension (JLE) from Green Park to Stratford.

Final assembly and equipping was at Alstom's facility at Washwood Heath on adjacent production lines.

[3] Alstom subsequently won the maintenance contract for 1996 Stock, to be carried out at the new Stratford Market Depot in East London.

[7][8] The 1996 Stock had been future-proofed with the ability to add a seventh car, with platforms already long enough for seven-car trains and the platform-edge doors at the Jubilee Line Extension stations had been built with extra space.

[11] Work involved signalling alterations, signage and software modification to the platform-edge doors.

The work was completed ahead of schedule and the line reopened two days early on 29 December.

This was replaced in November 2005 with the new dark blue Tube Lines moquette with multi-coloured and multi-size hollow squares, introduced at the same time on the 1973 and 1995 stock.

[16] From 2014 onwards, the external LCD destination displays were replaced with LED units.

[citation needed] Starting in 2017, the 1996 stock underwent refurbishment, some 20 years after first being introduced.

All grab rails were repainted Jubilee line silver, and new wheelchair backboards were provided in some trailer cars.

It had been intended to open the Jubilee Line Extension with an automatic train operation (ATO) system, however delays and technical difficulties meant that a conventional signalling system was hastily installed,[3] and until 2011 the trains were always driven manually by the driver using a dead man's handle, also known as the Traction-Brake controller.

The system uses inductive track loops, placed between the running rails, to communicate with the train.