Tube Lines prepares for day of record crowds on London Underground

Tube Lines is preparing for tomorrow (December 5) to be the busiest day ever on the Tube, with an estimated 80,000 additional passengers travelling on their three Underground lines alone. This is equivalent to Trafalgar Square filled eight times over!

The company runs the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines and if the company is right about its passenger predictions, it could be good news for hard-pressed traders as well.

The first Friday in December is traditionally the Tube's busiest day of the year as people take it off to do their Christmas shopping after receiving their November pay packets. Retailers will be holding their breath to see whether the public will spend their way out of the recession and if the 2.5 per cent reduction in VAT will convince them to hit the shops.

Tube Lines is busy preparing for tomorrow's increased Tube use, ensuring that reliability is maximised to ensure there are not delays, that a full fleet of trains is ready to transport all the additional passengers and that teams are on standby to make customers' journeys on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines as smooth as possible.

Lee Jones, Director of Operations at Tube Lines:

"Based on last year's passenger numbers we are expecting an extra 80,000 people to travel on our three lines on Friday to do their Christmas shopping. This is on top of the two million people who use our lines daily. That is a lot of passengers to move around the capital and the challenge is on us to keep trains and stations clean and services running reliably.

"If we go by last year's figures we expect the number of cleaning and litter faults to rocket so my teams will be on the ready to ensure trains and stations remain litter free and spillages are mopped up as they turn around at stations at the end of each line.