On one day last month the London Underground carried more passengers than the population of Wales
Transport for London (TfL) has published passenger statistics for last month showing than on 9 October this year, the Tube carried a record-breaking 4.7 million customers. That's 1.6 times the population of Wales.
Thought your commute was getting busier? You're not wrong: according to TfL, the last week of October was the Tube's busiest ever, with 28.6 million customer journeys. That beats December 2014, during which 28.3 million passengers ventured into the London Underground.
Back in July analysis by City A.M. of figures from the London Datastore suggested the Tube is full to bursting. Traffic at 36 of London's biggest Tube stations have increase more than a quarter over the past five years.
And Oxford Circus is the worst, with the number of passengers passing through the station rising 29 per cent between 2010 and 2014. It's now handling nearly 100 million passengers a year.
But there's only one way to deal with higher passenger numbers: upgrades. Today Nick Brown, London Underground's managing director, confessed there are further upgrades in store, with "radical modernisation" planned for the Central, Piccadilly, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City Lines in the 2020.
Meanwhile, work is underway at Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations, while Holborn, Bank and Camden Town are about to be hit.
The Tube is carrying more customers than ever before as London’s economy and population continue to grow," said Brown.
"This is why we are continuing to invest all of our income to modernise the service, improving reliability, train capacity and frequency and upgrading major stations to reduce congestion.”
Just don't mention the Night Tube…