London Overground 'growing in popularity'

Date: 30/11/2011

There has been a significant increase in the number of people using the London Overground system during the past few years.

Transport for London (TfL) noted that since it took over the network in 2007, passenger figures have grown from 600,000 a week to more than two million.

A new route connecting Highbury & Islington to New Cross Gate has been added in a bid to link the north of the capital to Croydon and the south-east.

Chief Operating Officer for London at TfL Rail Howard Smith said: "We have put a new fleet of modern, air-conditioned trains on the network and they are now running more reliably and more often."

Many of the system's stations have also received upgrades and a greater number of trains will be introduced to cope with demand in December.

The Overground is not the only network to be experiencing improvements, as new carriages are being added to the Central Line as part of a £27 million upgrade.

Posted by Mary Treen