London Underground breaks Olympic record for passenger numbers
Transport for London (TfL) revealed that Friday 14th November 2014 was the busiest day on the
Tube in its history.
The
London Underground (LU) network carried well over four and a half
million passengers (4.576m).
This exceeds the total reached on Tuesday 7th August 2012 during the
London 2012 Games when 4.544m journeys were made. It sums up a busy
week on the Tube with overall journeys up by 7.1 per cent on last year -
making it the second busiest week ever since the
Games.
Phil Hufton, LU’s Chief Operating Officer, said: "We are now carrying more passengers than ever before
in our history and this clearly illustrates why it is crucial that we invest in the modernisation of the Tube network.
“Our
customers
have already benefited from the upgrades of the Jubilee and Victoria
lines and work is well underway to modernise the Northern, Circle,
District, Hammersmith
& City and Metropolitan lines. But we need to continue driving
forward our improvements to ensure that we have a Tube network that is
fit for the future.
"From
next year we will have more visible staff on our stations helping
customers to buy the right
ticket, plan their journeys and help them feel safe and secure while
travelling around the network and I would like to thank all our staff
for their continued hard work to help keep London moving each day."
London's population is set to grow from 8.4m today to around 10m by 2030
– that’s an extra Tube train full of people every three
days
–
and it is therefore essential that there is continued investment in
increasing services and transport infrastructure to meet this increasing
demand.
To support this, LU is carrying out a huge programme of modernisation, with major stations, trains, track and signalling being updated or replaced to provide more capacity for a growing city.
By the end of 2016, 191 new spacious and air-conditioned trains will have been introduced on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines for a more comfortable journey.
The line upgrades are at the core of LU’s investment programme, which will deliver more than 30 per cent increase in capacity. The upgrade programme is being delivered over the coming years, with work to modernise the Northern line nearly complete, and the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines well underway.
Redevelopment
work to increase capacity at key stations and make them step-free is
underway at a number of stations
including Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street. More than
half of LU’s 270 stations have now been modernised or refurbished to
make them brighter and easier to use, with improvements such as tactile
strips, better CCTV and help points, electronic
information displays in ticket halls and on platforms and improved
seating and lighting.
Making
journeys on LU has become easier over the years. The Oyster card system
provides an easy way for people to pay
for their journeys and contactless bank cards are now accepted for
travel on the LU network. More than 12 million journeys have now been
made using contactless payment cards since the launch of the new
convenient way to pay on 16 September.
During
next year, LU will be modernising the way customers are served at
stations, with staff brought out from underused
ticket offices and back offices to where they can assist customers most
effectively – in ticket halls, on gate lines and on platforms. There
will be more staff visible and available to help customers buy the right
ticket or use their contactless payment card,
plan their journeys and keep them safe and secure, and all stations
will be staffed at all times. Later this year, every member of station
staff will have access to a mobile device which will provide them with
access to travel information with which to help
customers.
From
12th September next year, LU will introduce all night
24-hour services on Friday and Saturday
nights on the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and
Northern lines. This will cut journey times, support the
creation of some 2000 new jobs and boost London’s economy by £360
million.
Both images courtesy of Haydn Davies
Both images courtesy of Haydn Davies
