UK - 4.17m pax in one day on underground

[John Ashworth]

Records fall on the Tube

A staggering 4.17 million passengers are estimated to have travelled on the London Underground on Friday December 7, breaking the record of 4 million set in 2006.

And the record for weekend travel on the Tube was broken too, when on Saturday, December 1, almost 3 million used the syetem, most on their way to and from the West End for Christmas shopping.

On average the number of passengers travelling overall is increasing by around seven per cent a year with the total for 2007 forecast to be close to 1.1 billion journeys.

The significance of the statistics is shown by one simple fact: that every day the London Underground carries more passengers than the entire national rail network!

The busiest station on LU last year were Victoria (almost 73m passengers), Waterloo (72.87m), Oxford Circus (68.44m), Liverpool Street (57.9m) and Kings Cross/St Pancras (52.51m). The last-named is expected to rise dramatically due to Eurostar.

Transport for London has allocated £5bn in 2008 (half its transport budget) to be spent on improvements to the Underground system, recognising the challenges of upgrading old infrastructure to modern standards.

From The Railway Magazine, March 2008, p85

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Very impressive stats! THe tube was actually quite nice and clean the last time I used it - both stations and stock.