Going underground (again): Tube journeys up 40 per cent as hospitality reopens
The number of people taking public transport in London surged back to levels not seen since October last week as punters flocked back to pubs, bars, and shops as they reopened.
In total, there were about 1.4m Tube journeys made on 16 April, up from around 1m a week before – an increase of 40 per cent.
The last time there was so much underground usage was before the second national lockdown in November, stats from transit operator Transport for London (TfL) show.
Prior to the pandemic, there were on average 4m Tube journeys made a day.
Notably, the number of people taking the Tube actually increased over the course of last week, from 1.2m on Monday to 1.4m on Friday – perhaps due to thirsty workers looking to welcome the end of the week with a pint.
Bus use saw a less dramatic increase, as total journeys have been around the 3m per day mark since March. On 16 April, there were 3.2m journeys in total.
But the jump in usage was not just concentrated in the capital’s retail and leisure districts.
There were about 180,000 tap-ins and outs at Canada stations on 16 April, a healthy increase on 130,000 the week before.
The last time passenger numbers were so high was in the period leading up to Christmas, after the lifting of November’s lockdown.
But they are still a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, when there were nearly 1m tap-ins and outs of Square Mile stations per day.