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London 2012: Games bring record London Underground users

4 August 2012 Last updated at 10:09 GMT BBC

More people used the London Underground on Thursday than any other time in its history.

Transport for London said 4.31 million passengers used the Tube that day, breaking the record set on Wednesday, when 4.25 million used the network.

In the same week last year, daily Tube passenger numbers were about 3.8 million.

There have also been record figures for people using the cycle hire scheme and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR).

The previous busiest day in the Tube's history was 9 December 2011, when Christmas shoppers helped raise the figure to 4.17 million, according to Transport for London (TfL) figures.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "Sporting records are being smashed on a daily basis in London, and our world-famous Tube is breaking a few records of its own."

The DLR also carried record passengers on Monday 30 July, with almost 500,000 passengers, a 65% increase on normal levels.

The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme broke its previous record with almost 47,000 hires on 26 July - the most in one day since the initiative launched more than two years ago.

There have been a few delays this week with problems on the Central Line and overcrowding at London Bridge station.

But London's Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy said: "We're carrying these record numbers and keeping London moving and open for business because people are following our advice and planning their travel.

"What we're seeing is some people avoiding the peak hours and travelling at less busy times.

"I would like to thank our passengers for taking our advice on board and helping the transport network to support a great London 2012 Games."

Olympics Draw Record Number Of Passengers To London Transport

By Schuyler Clemente - Aug 4, 2012 2:18 PM GMT+0300 Bloomberg

London’s Underground railway carried a record number of passengers on Aug. 2, as Olympic spectators joined commuters and tourists to test the city’s subway system.

A record 4.31 million passengers traveled on the Underground that day, according to a statement from Transport for London. The previous busiest day for the Tube network was Dec. 9, 2011, when it carried 4.17 million passengers.

As many as 1 million extra visitors have been expected each day during the games. Travelers have been “avoiding peak hours and traveling at less busy times,” according to the statement from TfL. While the Central Line, one of two subway lines to the Olympic Park, was suspended yesterday morning following signal failures, TfL expects that passenger numbers for yesterday will have been “even higher,” according to spokesman Stephen Taylor.

In addition to the Underground, the Docklands Light Railway system also carried a record number of passengers on July 30, with almost 500,000 passengers, a 65 percent increase from normal levels, according to TfL. The Barclays Cycle Hire system also saw record traffic in the week commencing July 23, with more than 300,000 rentals, TfL said in the statement.

Olympic travel plans working, says transport chief

London 2012 has seen swelling numbers on tube, overground, DLR and hire cycles, despite stories of deserted West

Gwyn Topham, transport correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 August 2012 19.04 BST

The capital's transport chief said on Sunday there is no case to answer about "ghost town London" after passenger numbers broke records during the first week of the Olympics.

Peter Hendy, London transport commissioner, said all the planning had been vindicated. "We asked people to change their habits, they have done so: there are less in the peaks, more of them in the evenings," he said. "We knew there would be a lot more traffic, and we've dealt with it."

Tube numbers grew steadily over the three busiest days ever, peaking on the first day of athletics on Friday 3 August at 4.4m journeys, 20% higher than the same time last year.

The Docklands Light Railway served more than 500,000 journeys on Friday, its busiest day in history and 70% up on the average.

London Overground passengers were up 27% on the same week last year, while the cycle-hire scheme saw numbers borrowed pass the million mark in July for the first time in any month. The mayor's new cable car has proved almost as popular with the public as his zip-wire antics, with 24,400 crossing daily.

In statistics that appear to contradict stories of a deserted West End – or at least absolve TfL from the blame – the figures show between 7% and 12% more passengers across the week entering or leaving the seven key central London stations, with traffic on Saturday night 27% higher than in the weeks before the Olympics.

Hendy said the transport system had coped with many more people and the city had kept functioning. "If a pub had run out of beer last week it would have been on the front pages. No one ran out of beer, of bread, of blood, and even the papers were delivered."

He said the figures showed that people had travelled at different times as advised and that had kept the system working. Instead of London being a ghost town, he said: "You might even deduce that people are going to Olympic events or the live sites or watching it in pubs."

Hendy said TfL still needed people to continue to plan ahead and warned that Tuesday, when the triathlon is run in central London, would be challenging.

TRAIN DELAYS? WHO CARES AFTER ALL THIS

Express
Monday August 6,2012
By Colin Bateman

IF YOU love an alluring alliteration, this wonderful weekend was made for it. Fabulous Friday was followed by Super Saturday and it was topped off with Sonic Sunday.

There has never been a sporting orgy like it in these Isles of Wonder, and wonder we did as it unfolded beyond even the wildest dreams of Lord Coe and his cabal.

Sport has the power to nurture patriotic pride and produce a feeling of well-being throughout the land. The World Cup victory of 1966 and the Ashes of 2005 did just that.

Saturday, with its six Olympic gold medals for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, did it again.

The country’s greatest sporting day in a century, some said.

For those who have no truck with fun and games, it was a weekend to go camping on the remotest Hebridean island.

For the rest of us, it was a time to suspend cynicism, put aside any misgivings and just enjoy these Olympics for what they are: a celebration of human endeavour in sports that range from the beautiful to the bonkers.

Some questioned spending the £9.3billion to bring the Olympics to this country but, now it’s here, we might as well enjoy it. And thanks to the BBC’s astonishing coverage of every splash and sprint, grunt and groan, we can.

Fingers poised over the red button, we are all becoming experts in the 26 sports .

We looked on with admiration at Karina Bryant’s waza-ari. We know our tucks from our pikes, our foils from our sabres. We know the difference between rowers and scullers, why three-day eventing lasts four days and why the bloke on the little motorbike never seems to win a race in the Velodrome.

Assuming your weekend starts on a Friday evening, Britain’s men’s pursuit cyclists and then Victoria Pendleton provided the amuse-bouche to it all with their double-gold triumph in the cycling.

Saturday morning arrived with 25 more gold medals to be won in 23 different sports at 21 venues with a cast that took the breath away.

There was the most decorated Olympian of all time, American swimmer Michael Phelps, who added an 18th gold to his collection.

There was the fastest man on no legs, the remarkable South African Oscar Pistorius, the star of the Paralympics who was making his bow in the Olympics in the 400m. There were some well-paid gentlemen from America who are the dream team of basketball.

There was a pensioner known as ‘Captain Canada’. Ian Miller, a 65-year-old show-jumper who was appearing in a record 10th Games having started in Munich 40 years ago. London would have been his 11th had Canada not boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games.

We held our breath and hoped beyond hope that ‘Our Jess’ would not mess it up in the heptathlon and she did not disappoint, making herself even more of a national darling, if that were possible.

At King’s Cross Station, the announcer broke off from apologising for delays to the service to York to tell frustrated travellers: ‘Jess Ennis has won Gold’. The waiting mass all cheered. The country had gone mad.

It was the start of a euphoric hour in the Olympic Stadium as Greg Rutherford and then Mo Farah turned the 80,000 present plus 17million television viewers into a disbelieving, yelling, crying mass.

It all came on top of the double gold won by our rowers on the final day at Eton Dorney and an imperious victory by the three girls of GB’s pursuit team in the Velodrome. Sunday could not top that but it would give it a darned good try.

The heartbeat of any Olympic Games is the athletics stadium and the show-stopper last night was the most charismatic race of them all for the title of the fastest man on Earth.

Lightning Bolt and seven other men were about to provide 10 seconds of entertainment that would capture the world’s imagination.

But, before that, Britain was awash with delight again as its favourite sailor since Admiral Nelson, Ben Ainslie, won a fourth consecutive gold off the Dorset coast to confirm him as the greatest Olympic yachtsman of all time.

Meanwhile, Murray Mania had infected Wimbledon all over again. Not content with finally getting to one final, Andy had only gone and got himself into two yesterday.

Who wants a Grand Slam when you can win an Olympic gold?

Only seven more days of this and then we can all go and lie down in a darkened room.