TfL carries record number of bus passengers following Monday’s storm

Transport for London (TfL) today released data on passenger numbers during Monday’s storm.

The data shows that during the extreme weather conditions, which saw large numbers of trees and other obstacles blown across roads and rails, the bus and Tube network carried a combined 11.4 million passengers compared with 10.7 million on an average Monday.

On Monday evening the bus network carried around 30 per cent more passengers between 16:00 and 19:00 than on a normal Monday.

Across the whole of the day, the bus network carried 7.54 million passenger journeys - the highest number of journeys ever recorded in one day.

This was despite a drop in bus ridership expected during half-term week when demand usually falls by more than 10 per cent.

The conditions caused disruption to some of the open outer reaching branches of the Tube and there was a significant reduction in the number of people entering the Tube network from the national rail network.

The Tube carried 3.86 million people across the day, only about nine per cent fewer passengers than on an average Monday.

A number of Tube stations saw very significant increases in passenger numbers.

Sir Peter Hendy CBE, London’s Transport Commissioner, said: ’Monday’s extreme weather conditions made travelling conditions pretty tough at times, and I want to thank our customers and road users for bearing with us while our staff worked hard to shift trees and debris from lines and roads to keep the city moving.

’The bus network did an amazing job, carrying 7.54 million passengers with around 30 per cent more passengers travelling by bus than on a normal Monday night.’

The DLR carried around 110,000 customers, which is around 10 per cent lower than normal around the same reduction in passengers on the Tube.

On the London Overground, in common with other rail operators in the South East, Network Rail, which maintains the majority of the track infrastructure, had to work to clear tracks and carry out safety checks before services could operate.

There were 18 trees blocking various parts of the London Overground network which were cleared as quickly as possible by Network Rail.

London Overground services were progressively introduced from around 9:30 starting on the East London Line from New Cross and New Cross Gate to Highbury and Islington followed by the Euston to Watford line at lunchtime.

As a result, we carried around 30,000 customers, compared to around 100,000 on a usual weekday.