The number of passengers using the Tube during the week has increased by 25 per cent since the “work from home” guidance was lifted, it was revealed on Thursday.
New figures from Transport for London said there were 2.43m journeys on February 3, up from 1.94m on January 13 - six days before workers were advised by Boris Johnson to return to the office.
But TfL bosses say the so-called “TWaT” trend of commuters only heading into work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and working from home on Monday and Friday was “very much the case”.
They also expect that Tube passenger numbers will never return to pre-pandemic levels, when more than five million journeys a day were seen at peak times, due to new working patterns becoming entrenched.
Weekday Tube ridership is now 55-60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with the morning peak only half as busy as pre-Covid.
Bus passenger numbers are up about 10 per cent in the last month, and are about 75 per cent of normal. Some routes in outer London said to be approaching “normal” levels.
Simon Kilonback, TfL’s chief finance officer, said the fall in passengers over the Christmas period due to the Omicron variant and slow return to work was having “devastating effects” on TfL’s finances.
He said the key “driver” in Tube demand was the number of people travelling to the “central activities area” in central London - the City of London, Westminster and the South Bank.
“The big impact on the Tube is still people who can work in offices or work from home, working from home,” he told the London Assembly.
Referring to the Tuesday to Thursday phenomenon, he said it was already noticeable pre-pandemic and added: “ What the pandemic has done is massively accelerated that trend. It really is the case that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays are now the peak of activity.”
TfL commissioner Andy Byford said the “most likely” scenario was one in which “there would not be a full return to previous levels” of passengers.
Mr Byford said: “There will be a lingering effect that some businesses chose not to re-populate their central offices, some individuals will chose to work from home, maybe not all the time but maybe Mondays and Fridays.”
Stations close to financial institutions such as Canary Wharf, Mansion House and Aldgate have seen passenger numbers between 8-9am almost double.
At weekends, stations such as Leicester Square are above 80 per cent of normal. The Night Tube is about 45 per cent of previous use.
Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, said: “These new figures from TfL show that a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is well under way in the capital and that confidence is coming back among City workers and visitors. They’re reflected by the queues I’m finding when out for coffee and the reactivated offices I see from my window.”
Ros Morgan, chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, said: “We are heartened to see the pick-up in Tube journeys particularly at Leicester Square and other key tourist stations since the removal of working from home guidance and restrictions.”
