Hearing that the Piccadilly subway line re-opened yesterday reminded me that I’d been wondering how Londoners have been getting around since the subway/bus attacks, especially those who used the Picadilly line regularly. I myself depend on the subway to get to work every day, and I’m not sure how I’d manage to get to work without it; at the very least it would take a lot longer. Were extra bus routes set up to cover the Piccadilly line until it reopened? Has there been a noticable drop in the number of people using public transit?
The prolonged closure on the Piccadilly line was only along the central portion, so it was possible to find workarounds for most journeys. For example, someone who usually travelled in to the centre along it from the far north could get it in as far as Finsbury Park (a couple of miles north of Kings Cross) as normal and then switch to get the Victoria line the rest of the way in. That’d be mildly inconvenient, but learning to adjust your route to avoid delays and station closures is pretty much a basic skill when it comes to using the Tube daily anyway. I’d guess it was adding 15-20 minutes on average for those whose commutes were most badly extended.
To be honest, after the initial disruption on both the 7th and the 21st, the closures were no worse that what happens on an average weekend for maintenence.
Yes, extra buses were also running on some routes to add capacity.
As for an extended fall in passenger numbers, I’m not sure. I’m rarely on the Tube in rush hour these days, so I can’t judge what it’s currently like at peak times, but it’s not been noticably quieter at other times of the day. Lots of police hanging around the stations though.
The stat quoted in The Independent today was a 30% fall in Tube passengers. Anecdotally, cycle shops are making out like bandits as people decide to avoid the Tube and most offices in central london now have more cyclists than they did two months ago. Unfortunately, you are still at a higher risk cycling in London than you are taking the Tube, so it may turn out that some people will come to seriously regret that decision. On the other hand, a colleague pointed out to me that he’d rather have some control over the risk, which is a fair enough point. I expect Tube numbers will rise again as we move into winter, when cycling stops being fun.
Think its fair to say that for the most part its life pretty much as normal!
Yes some may have had to take a different route, and yes, there may have been an extra few minutes added to some journeys as a result, but apart from the inital disruption - which I agree was in some ways no more than would occur with any so called traffic disruption experienced at least once a week in London, its really not made TOO much difference. Usage of tubes may be down at the moment sure, but perhaps thats because the number of available tube services themselves are down?
Some of the decline in tube usage might also be explained by people leaving town for summer holidays. Anecdotally, August is a more popular holiday period than July.