What are the busiest tube lines at the weekend?

[Peregrine 4903]

This just meant to be an observation and not factual but what lines does everyone find to be the busiest at the weekend?

In my experience almost all the tube lines, while still busy at the weekends seem to get a little quiter overall, with more passengers during the day but significantly less in the peaks. Although I probably don't travel enough on tube lines that aren't the Piccadilly on weekends to accurately comment on this.

The exception to this seems to be the Piccadilly Line which seems to at the weekends hit overcrowding levels that the Victoria, Central and Northern (Bank Branch) reach during the peaks Monday-Friday.

It also doesn't help that the Piccadilly Line seems to be recently suffering from frequency drops but on the Weekend the Piccadilly is absolutely rammed, from about Wood Green to Hammersmith, and particularly the section between Kings Cross and South Kensington. Frequently cannot get on trains on the Piccadilly Line at weekends, which even when its at its busiest Monday-Friday, that doesn't normally happen then.

 

[bramling]

This just meant to be an observation and not factual but what lines does everyone find to be the busiest at the weekend?

In my experience almost all the tube lines, while still busy at the weekends seem to get a little quiter overall, with more passengers during the day but significantly less in the peaks.

The exception to this seems to be the Piccadilly Line which seems to at the weekends hit overcrowding levels that the Victoria, Central and Northern (Bank Branch) reach during the peaks Monday-Friday.

It also doesn't help that the Piccadilly Line seems to be recently suffering from frequency dropps but on the Weekend the Piccadilly is absolutely rammed, from about Wood Green to Hammersmith, and particularly the section between Kings Cross and South Kensington. Frequently cannot get on trains on the Piccadilly Line at weekends, which even when its at its busiest Monday-Friday doesn't normally happen then.

I'd say all the lines are busier at weekends (apart from about 0800-1000 Sunday mornings) than they are during the inter-peak period Mondays to Fridays.

I'd say the Northern is perhaps the quietest, particularly on the Bank branch, and I'd go with what another poster has said that the Picc is very busy. Can possibly add Central, Jubilee and Northern to that too.

 

[Peregrine 4903]

I'd say all the lines are busier at weekends (apart from about 0800-1000 Sunday mornings) than they are during the inter-peak period Mondays to Fridays.

I'd say the Northern is perhaps the quietest, particularly on the Bank branch, and I'd go with what another poster has said that the Picc is very busy. Can possibly add Central, Jubilee and Northern to that too.

I'd definetley agree with what your saying. I don't really use the Central but I can imagine it would be really busy on the weekends.

When using the Northern Line Charing Cross Branch I found it to be really busy on the weekends, not as bad as the Piccadilly Line but still busy.

I'm not surprised the Northern Line Bank Branch is quiet on the weekends as it doesn't really go to any major tourist areas.

 

[telstarbox]

Anecdotally the South Bank area (from the London Eye to London Bridge) feels very busy at weekends now, which means a lot of traffic on that part of the Jubilee line. The extended Tate Modern, revamped South Bank Centre, Flat Iron Square and Bermondsey Street are all very popular!

And more activity and events generally on Sundays across Central London. Southeastern Metro services out of Charing Cross around Sunday teatime can be as busy as weekday services.

 

[Peregrine 4903]

Anecdotally the South Bank area (from the London Eye to London Bridge) feels very busy at weekends now, which means a lot of traffic on that part of the Jubilee line. The extended Tate Modern, revamped South Bank Centre, Flat Iron Square and Bermondsey Street are all very popular!

And more activity and events generally on Sundays across Central London. Southeastern Metro services out of Charing Cross around Sunday teatime can be as busy as weekday services.

The South Bank area has got to be one of the biggest success stories in London. Probably the nicest area in London now. I was in Waterloo last Saturday and the Northern Line Charing Cross Branch from Waterloo in the evening was very busy with people travelling to and from Southbank.

I presume Waterloo East station must also be very busy at weekends with passengers using it to access Southbank.

 

[LU_timetabler]

Just after lunchtime on Sunday isn't too bad, but late afternoon is heavy. (observation on Bakerloo and Central)

 

[Peregrine 4903]

Just after lunchtime on Sunday isn't too bad, but late afternoon is heavy. (observation on Bakerloo and Central)

The bakerloo line has always been a bit confusing to me as despite it going to many desirable locations the line always seems to be one of the least used lines.

I can imagine it gets busy at weekends as it serves al lot of the big leisure and tourist destinations in central london.

 

[Aictos]

I went from Kings Cross to Holborn on the Piccadilly just before Christmas and I believe a form of crowd control should have been in use because the platform resembled the peak and no matter that a train had just picked up a load of passengers, it felt like a never ending crowd on the platform. That was about 1pm on a Saturday I believe which to me was far worse then a weekday peak.

 

[Kris28]

Piccadilly the busiest

Bakerloo on sundays between 3 - 8pm southbound can be very busy.

Victoria line after 8pm to 1am can be very busy going to Brixton

 

[Peregrine 4903]

I went from Kings Cross to Holborn on the Piccadilly just before Christmas and I believe a form of crowd control should have been in use because the platform resembled the peak and no matter that a train had just picked up a load of passengers, it felt like a never ending crowd on the platform. That was about 1pm on a Saturday I believe which to me was far worse then a weekday peak.

I'm not surprised by your story at all. The Piccadilly Line at weekends has always been rammed for long periods during the day. Far worse than the peaks during the week.

 

[transmanche]

In my experience almost all the tube lines, while still busy at the weekends seem to get a little quiter overall, with more passengers during the day but significantly less in the peaks.

If the number of trains in service at the weekend compared to the weekday peak indicates how busy the line is, then it has to be the Piccadilly line. It has 78 trains in service during the weekday AM peak, 77 in the PM peak and 76 on Saturday afternoons/early evening. So it's running pretty much a peak hour service on Saturday afternoons.

The Central isn't far behind: 77 in the weekday peaks, 73 on Saturday afternoons/early evenings. The Circle/H&C and Bakerloo also are only two trains shy of their weekday peaks (33 to 31 and 31 to 29 respectively). The Northern and Victoria lines must be far less busy as they require a lot fewer trains on Saturday afternoons compared to the weekday peak (95 to 80 and 41 to 33 respectively).

 

[Peregrine 4903]

If the number of trains in service at the weekend compared to the weekday peak indicates how busy the line is, then it has to be the Piccadilly line. It has 78 trains in service during the weekday AM peak, 77 in the PM peak and 76 on Saturday afternoons/early evening. So it's running pretty much a peak hour service on Saturday afternoons.

The Central isn't far behind: 77 in the weekday peaks, 73 on Saturday afternoons/early evenings. The Circle/H&C and Bakerloo also are only two trains shy of their weekday peaks (33 to 31 and 31 to 29 respectively). The Northern and Victoria lines must be far less busy as they require a lot fewer trains on Saturday afternoons compared to the weekday peak (95 to 80 and 41 to 33 respectively).

Thankyou for those statistics, they are very interesting.

The Piccadilly Line needs all those trains at the weekend. In fact I'd argue it almost needs more on the weekends then it does during the weeks due to the severe overcrowding.

And with the frequent cancellations the Piccadilly seems to suffer especially on weekends, the overcrowding gets even worse, particularly on the central section. I was waiting for a train at Leicester Square last saturday heading towards Cockfosters and the platform was completely full meaning we couldn't get on the first train and the second one wasn't for another 7 minutes, through sheer luck we somehow managed to get on that one, mainly due to a lot of people getting off at Leicester Square, but practically a whole platform worth of people got left behind.

 

[Hadders]

Part of the issue is that during the weekday peaks commuters 'know the drill'. At weekends it's generally tourists and leisure passengers who aren't as well versed as their commuter cousins.

 

[bramling]

Part of the issue is that during the weekday peaks commuters 'know the drill'. At weekends it's generally tourists and leisure passengers who aren't as well versed as their commuter cousins.

Absolutely. The weekend lot can be extremely troublesome, even in modest numbers. There's also a certain arrogance in that they quickly get the arse when something doesn't go quite right - which in a lot of cases is because they haven't bothered to check for engineering works and then compound this by being too busy babbling away to each other to hear announcements!

Commuters are a dream by comparison.

 

[TFN]

I could barely get off my Jubilee like train yesterday at 1700hrs London Bridge. The usual commuters are wary of the different sides the doors open and know the busy stations people are expected to get off.

Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines are the worst in my opinion for a weekend, especially after midday right until 2000hrs.

 

[bramling]

I could barely get off my Jubilee like train yesterday at 1700hrs London Bridge. The usual commuters are wary of the different sides the doors open and know the busy stations people are expected to get off.

Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines are the worst in my opinion for a weekend, especially after midday right until 2000hrs.

Hyde Park Corner was a sight to behold on Friday night, with everything reversing off the platform there during Night Tube in order to allow the possession arrangements to be implemented for the main weekend closure west of Hammersmith.

Despite the train and station destination indicators showing Hyde Park Corner, and the usual numerous announcements, every reversing train arrived full of people who promptly sat there and found themselves going back east. Then of course once the penny dropped they were all f-ing and blinding that they were now heading back to whence they came, and cue the normal moans of “what’s going on?” and “why did no one tell us?”.

In all honesty, an embarrassment being the same species.

 

[SlimJim1694]

If the number of trains in service at the weekend compared to the weekday peak indicates how busy the line is, then it has to be the Piccadilly line. It has 78 trains in service during the weekday AM peak, 77 in the PM peak and 76 on Saturday afternoons/early evening. So it's running pretty much a peak hour service on Saturday afternoons.

The Central isn't far behind: 77 in the weekday peaks, 73 on Saturday afternoons/early evenings. The Circle/H&C and Bakerloo also are only two trains shy of their weekday peaks (33 to 31 and 31 to 29 respectively). The Northern and Victoria lines must be far less busy as they require a lot fewer trains on Saturday afternoons compared to the weekday peak (95 to 80 and 41 to 33 respectively).

That's quite interesting. So I guess the rosters on these lines must reflect this with Northern and Jubilee line drivers getting more weekends off than their colleagues on the other lines.

 

[rebmcr]

The Circle/H&C and Bakerloo also are only two trains shy of their weekday peaks (33 to 31 and 31 to 29 respectively).

That one at least is artificially limited by the legacy signalling, I think it's planned to be 36tph peak / 28tph off-peak on the Circle once CBTC is fully rolled-out (not sure what proportion of the fleet that is).

 

[Dstock7080]

That one at least is artificially limited by the legacy signalling, I think it's planned to be 36tph peak / 28tph off-peak on the Circle once CBTC is fully rolled-out (not sure what proportion of the fleet that is).

The Circle Line will not be going to 36tph.
A combined Circle District Metropolitan service will provide up to 32tph on the joint sections.
The Circle will be max. 8tph peak.

 

[Peregrine 4903]

I could barely get off my Jubilee like train yesterday at 1700hrs London Bridge. The usual commuters are wary of the different sides the doors open and know the busy stations people are expected to get off.

Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines are the worst in my opinion for a weekend, especially after midday right until 2000hrs.

I defenitely agree with the Piccadilly Line. I don't really use the Jubilee Line but it sounds like its exceptionally busy at weekends from what people have been saying.

 

[Mikey C]

The Northern Line Bank branch may be quieter than the Charing X branch at weekends, but the gap has definitely closed as many areas on it are far more touristy/trendy than they used to be

 

[Peregrine 4903]

The Northern Line Bank branch may be quieter than the Charing X branch at weekends, but the gap has definitely closed as many areas on it are far more touristy/trendy than they used to be

I'm suspected that. With all the redevelopment going on along the Bank branch of the Northern Line; Kings Cross, Angel, Old Street and London Bridge have all become popular destinations for tourists. And with the redevelopment at Euston it wouldn't surprise me if Euston becomes a destination soon as well. Meaning the only station in the central core that probably won't be a major/leisure tourist destination is Moorgate.

 

[notverydeep]

TfL's traffic data (2018 RODS on TfL Transparency http://crowding.data.tfl.gov.uk/) indicates that the busiest link at any time on a Saturday is Warren Street to Euston between 1745 and 1800, which has 3,756 passengers. Looking at the whole day, the link towards Oxford Circus from Warren Street has the highest loading with 167,087. By comparison the busiest Piccadilly line link across the day has 109,264 passengers - that is Green Park to Hyde Park Corner WB; on the Bakerloo it is Oxford Circus to Regents Park, with 72,841...

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Which is in part a product of the Victoria line having more trains per hour. In addition the Victoria line is carry those passengers in 8 car trains not 6 car ones. I haven’t done the maths, but passengers per car might well be quite similar.

 

[notverydeep]

Which is in part a product of the Victoria line having more trains per hour. In addition the Victoria line is carry those passengers in 8 car trains not 6 car ones. I haven’t done the maths, but passengers per car might well be quite similar.

Indeed and the data does show this. Adjusting for frequency in the busiest 15 minutes gives 415 passengers per train on the Piccadilly and 470 on the Victoria line. This is the 15 minute link load of 2,488 divided by the 6 scheduled trains per 15 minutes (24 per hour) on the Piccadilly line over the Green Park to Hyde Park Corner section and the 3,756 link load divided by the 8 trains per 15 minute period (30 per hour) on the Victoria line between Oxford Circus and Warren Street. Then to account for train length (but ignoring small differences in internal layout): a Piccadilly line 6 car train is 79% the length of a Victoria line 8 car train. This means that the Piccadilly line train needs only 372 passengers to achieve the same density of loading. Therefore, the Piccadilly line gets to roughly 112% of the level of loading density reached by the Victoria line at the busiest time on a Saturday. In this sense, it can claim to be the most densely loaded, if not the busiest...

Assuming my maths is right of course!

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Thanks!