August Bank Holiday Weekend saw a near 10% increase in bus travel on the equivalent weekend last year, with Tube journeys seeing a near 6% rise
TfL is now hoping to maintain upward momentum as autumn approaches
New ridership figures from Transport for London have revealed a record number of public transport journeys since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The August Bank Holiday weekend saw the highest number of bus and Tube journeys since the pandemic in comparison to the same long weekend in previous years, as millions travelled to west London to participate in the Notting Hill Carnival.
Bus travel saw a near 10% increase on the equivalent weekend last year, with Tube journeys seeing a near 6% increase. The weekend rounded off a busy summer on the network that saw stations in central London hit pre-Covid levels at weekends, if not exceed them, by early August.
TfL is now hoping to maintain this upward momentum as autumn approaches. Londoners are being encouraged to walk, cycle and hop on public transport this month to make the most of the Open House Festival, a firm favourite in the capital’s cultural calendar.
We have had a bumper summer with people using public transport to make the most of London’s cultural offerings, including the Notting Hill Carnival over the Bank Holiday weekend
Emma Strain, TfL’s customer director, said: “We have had a bumper summer with people using public transport to make the most of London’s cultural offerings, including the Notting Hill Carnival over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Scotland’s capital also enjoyed a surge in public transport ridership during August. On August 18, two weeks into the Edinburgh Festival season, bus operator Lothian recorded over 100,000 ‘taps’ on its ‘TapTapCap’ contactless payment method. Usage of the system usually averages at over 80,000 journey taps per day.
This article appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
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