‘September surge’ continues apace as Tube and bus passengers rise again
Commuters continued to rush back to public transport this morning, new figures from Transport for London (TfL) show, with both Tube and bus passenger numbers up sharply again this morning.
Between 7am and 8am, there were 298,600 “taps” on the Tube, up 33 per cent on last week and 8.0 per cent on yesterday, while on London’s buses there were 327,600 taps, up a whopping 73 per cent on a week ago.
For the next hour of travel, 8am and 9am, numbers were even higher, with 381,400 “taps” on the Tube, an increase of 41 per cent on a week ago and 15 per cent on yesterday.
The same jump was in evidence on the bus network, with 349,800 “taps”, up 86 per cent on last week and 8.0 per cent higher than yesterday.
Buses were at their busiest since 17 March 2020, with the return to school making a big difference to passenger numbers, TfL said.
Today’s hikes come after yesterday saw the busiest Monday on the Tube since the pandemic began in a further sign that normality is returning to the capital.
In total, there were 3.59m entries and exits compared to the pre-pandemic baseline of 7.12m. It was the first time that the Tube has seen 50 per cent of ridership on a Monday since March 2020.
Numbers are expected to continue rising in the coming weeks as more and more workers head back into their offices.
Since lockdown restrictions were lifted in July TfL passenger numbers have risen steadily through the holiday season.
Last week the Underground saw more than 2m passengers over a single day for the first time in nearly 18 months.