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The Tube achieved a new record for the number of daily journeys last Friday — beating the previous busiest day during the 2012 Olympics — thanks to a free travel promotion.

There were 4,576,000 journeys, exceeding the total set on Tuesday, August 7, 2012 when 4,544,000 journeys were made.

It was the second busiest week ever since the Games with overall journeys up by 7.1 per cent on last year.

Some 172,000 free journeys were made last Friday as a credit card company offered complimentary travel to promote contactless wave-and-pay cards rather than Oyster.

Phil Hufton, London Underground’s chief operating officer, said: “We are now carrying more passengers than ever before in our history and this clearly illustrates why it is crucial that we invest in the modernisation of the Tube network. Our customers have already benefited from the upgrades of the Jubilee and Victoria lines and work is well underway to modernise the Northern, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. But we need to continue driving forward our improvements to ensure that we have a Tube network that is fit for the future.

“From next year we will have more visible staff on our stations helping customers to buy the right ticket, plan their journeys and help them feel safe and secure while travelling around the network and I would like to thank all our staff for their continued hard work to help keep London moving each day.”

London’s population is set to grow from 8.4 million to about 10 million by 2030 — the equivalent of an extra Tube train full of people every three days over the next 16 years — making it vital that there is continued investment in increasing services and transport infrastructure to meet rising demand.