City centre tube stations getting half their pre-lockdown passenger figures

Jacob Phillips. Local Democracy Reporter

London’s most popular Tube stations are getting roughly half as many visitors than before the pandemic began, the latest data shows.

Oxford Circus, South Kensington and Westminster still don’t have their pre-pandemic levels of passengers.

The latest TfL data shows that London’s 17 most popular tourist stations are still facing the brunt of the pandemic.

At the end of January 2022, there were 457,138 people travelling to stations such as Tower Hill, Green Park and Baker Street.

In comparison, the same stations had 928,079 visitors at the end of January 2020.

Westminster station had just 25,432 visitors on January 28 – roughly as third the number of people who visited the station on January 31, 2020 when 81,002 visited Parliament and other attractions.

Similarly, 41,648 visitors tapped out at South Kensington station on January 28. But this is way below pre-pandemic levels and 97,686 people stopped off at the tourist hotspot on January 31 2020.

Visitors to the Tower of London have also dropped. Tower Hill station had half as many visitors on January 28 (24,214) compared to January 31 2020 (55,778). But there are some signs that the tourist industry may be jumping back.

Winter Wonderland recently caused a spike in tourists visiting Hyde Park Corner. On December 4, 2021, there were 30,411 people visiting Hyde Park Corner station but since then numbers have dropped in January and only 6,707 people visited the station at the end of January.

Numbers are also beginning to rise across the West End – particularly at weekends. Piccadilly Circus station saw 94,041 visitors on November 27 2021 – close to pre-pandemic levels.

But West End businesses will be cautious to celebrate the return of the tourist industry. Numbers have dropped again in January with only 53,916 people visiting the famous station on January 28.

Transport for London (TfL) is facing a £1.5 billion black hole in its finances after being hit hard by the pandemic, according to figures released Wednesday.  Mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned lines could be shut for several days as a result.

A TfL spokesperson said: “Since the Government’s announcement lifting working from home restrictions, we have seen a general increase in demand across our network.

Tube ridership is now around 55 per cent of pre-pandemic levels during the week, and at weekends this is even higher – reaching three quarters of normal demand at certain times. On our buses, ridership remains steady at around 70-75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels throughout the week.

“Public transport is key to the capital’s recovery from the pandemic, and we continue to run a near-normal service across our Tubes, buses and trains. These latest figures indicate that millions of Londoners are now regularly using public transport, showing continued confidence that services are safe, clean and reliable.”