The number of journeys made on Transport
for London’s
(TfL’s) transport services in 2014/15 has hit new record levels as the city’s
success continues to drive jobs and economic growth. Around half a
billion more public transport journeys are now taking place compared to five
years ago, with all elements of the transport network seeing growing demand.
New figures from TfL
show:
London Underground (LU) – a record of over
1.3 billion passenger journeys;
Buses – a record of
nearly 2.4 billion passenger journeys – over half of all bus journeys made in England;
Docklands Light
Railway (DLR) and the London Overground – on the DLR a record 110 million
passenger journeys, nearly 10 million more than the previous year. On the
Overground, nearly 140 million passenger journeys up by almost five million.
London's population is set to grow from 8.6m
today to around 10m by 2030.
To enable this, TfL is delivering one of the world’s largest
programmes of public transport investment – unlocking jobs and supporting new
homes. The tunnelling stage in the construction of Crossrail, the new
railway linking east and west London,
is now nearing completion and the new TfL-run line will be fully open in 2019.
The Underground is being modernised and extended, with key stations expanded
and new trains and signalling providing essential new capacity. Reliability has
been radically improved and customers on the upgraded Victoria
and Jubilee lines are now travelling on some of the most frequent metro
services anywhere in Europe. Widespread
improvements are being made to the bus network, the flexible backbone of the London economy, in order
to meet growing demand.
Since 2000 there has been a 69 per cent increase in
passengers and TfL is investing around £500m to further improve the network,
including funding for over 500 extra buses. Transport Commissioner, Sir
Peter Hendy CBE, said: “Demand for our services continues to grow with London’s success and we
are committed to a relentless focus on improving the day-to-day reliability and
safety of public transport and the road network. In addition, steady and
sustained investment in the modernisation of London Underground, our roads and
the delivery of Crossrail will provide vital new capacity. At the same
time, we have taken 15 per cent out of our cost base as part of our huge
savings and efficiency programme.”
LU is carrying out a
huge programme of modernisation, with major stations, trains, track and control
systems being updated or replaced to provide more capacity for a growing city.
Each line is being worked on and we will, assuming a continued investment
programme, see more than a 30 per cent increase in capacity.
Redevelopment work to
increase capacity at key stations and make them step-free is underway at places
such as Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street. More than half of LU’s 270
stations have now been improved to leave them brighter and easier to use, with
tactile strips, better CCTV and help points, electronic information displays in
ticket halls and on platforms and improved seating and lighting.
New air-conditioned
walk-through trains are being introduced on 40 per cent of the LU network. The
Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines already have these trains
in service and they are now also on the District line – where more trains are
due this year.
From 12th September this
year, London Underground will introduce the ‘Night Tube’ – an all night 24 hour
services on key lines on Friday and Saturday nights, which will cut journey
times, support the creation of some 2000 new jobs and boost London’s economy by
£360 million.
London Underground is
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, at gate lines and on platforms.
There will be more staff visible and available to help customers to buy the
right ticket or use contactless payments, plan their journeys and keep
them safe and secure, and all stations will be staffed at all times.
The Capital’s bus
network is one of the most extensive and accessible anywhere in the world. The
network comprises of around 700 routes, serving 19,500 bus stops across Greater
London and is operated by 7,600 buses at peak times, carrying almost 2.4
billion passengers every year.
TfL is also radically
improving the information available to passengers to help make journeys as easy
as possible. TfL has made accurate real-time service information available to
customers on their mobile phones, tablets and other devices, and at roadside
signs and public locations like hospital waiting rooms, schools and shopping
centres. The provision of free open data is also enabling app developers to
launch even more useful products to help passengers get around and save time.
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The next in the series of albums from the POPS event held at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent has now been posted and features double-deckers. This can be viewed by clicking here
