New figures published by Transport for London (TfL) show an extra 9.5m customer journeys were made on the Tube in June and July compared to last summer, with performance remaining steady despite the challenges of the hot weather.

The first fleet of air-conditioned trains is now in operation on the Metropolitan line and the trains are being rolled out on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines.

New figures published by Transport for London (TfL) show an extra 9.5m customer journeys were made on the Tube in June and July compared to last summer, with performance remaining steady despite the challenges of the hot weather.

An additional 9.5m customers were carried in the two four-week periods compared to the same periods last year, up from 186.6m during the two periods last year to 196.1m this year.

While increased temperatures in the summer months can have an impact on the performance of the railway, London Underground (LU) still managed to operate 97.9 per cent scheduled train services during the eight weeks.

The figures for Periods 3 and 4 of 2013/14 (26 May to 22 June and 23 June to 20 July) show that delays were up slightly on previous periods, although some of this is attributable to an 8 per cent increase over the two periods in the number of delays relating to people being ill on trains.

Delays overall have been reduced by 54 per cent in the last ten years.

Long-term improvement on the Tube

 

The continuing trend of long-term improvement on the Tube follows the success of the London Underground Reliability Programme, introduced in 2011. 

London Underground continues to develop and implement more reliable solutions to meet the Mayor's commitment of reducing delays by a further 30 per cent by 2015.

Phil Hufton, Chief Operating Officer of London Underground, said: 'With more than 9 million additional customers journeys on the Tube this summer we're now carrying more passengers than ever before, while working flat-out to get the most reliable performance we can from the Underground.

'We know the warmer months can bring many challenges impacting on the reliability of our trains and tracks, as well as an increase in people feeling the effects of higher temperatures, so we're doing everything we can to make customers' journeys as comfortable as possible.

'The first fleet of air-conditioned trains is now in operation on the Metropolitan line and the trains are being rolled out on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines, and platform cooling solutions have been introduced at stations including Green Park, Victoria and Oxford Circus.'
 

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