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If we pretend Eris doesn’t exist, just for a sec, it’s starting to feel like we’re truly free from the pandemic. The London summer calendar has been full of huge music, sport and celebratory events, and it’s thanks to that non-stop roster that Transport for London has reported incredibly high ridership figures across tubes and buses.
Central stations are apparently hitting if not exceeding 2019 numbers on weekends, while daily use of tubes and buses across the city is reaching approximately 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
On July 1, the date of the London Pride parade, 6.9 million journeys were taken – and that was just on the tube. According to TfL, a figure as high as that has not been reached since December 2019.
When Battersea Power Station’s chimneys were lit up on July 5 to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS, its namesake tube station had its busiest day of the year so far. Since the Northern Line’s extension was opened in September 2021, BPS station has had 10 million entries and exits.
Wimbledon was another huge draw for passengers, with Southfields station seeing almost three times its usual traffic during the first three days of the tournament.
Perhaps the biggest draw of all though, has been London’s immense live music events. Gigs are a huge magnet for increasing passenger numbers at places like Wembley Park station. Blur’s Wembley Stadium performance last month meant that there were 120,000 tap-ins and tap-outs, compared to the usual 50,000 on an ordinary Saturday. The final date of Harry Styles’ ‘Love on Tour’ also drew an enormous 134,000 entries and exits to the station, verging on triple its typical figure.
Andy Lord, London Transport Commissioner, said ‘It is wonderful to see the city return to the same vibrancy it had before the pandemic. Public transport continues to be a vital part of London’s economic recovery.'
Did you see that these are the only London tube stations with toilets?
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