The £700m, seven-year transformation of Bank station was completed on Monday amid hopes it will encourage more commuters back to the Square Mile.
But there were teething problems ahead of the grand unveiling by Mayor Sadiq Khan – with rush-hour trains on the Northern line briefly unable to stop at the station due to power supply problems.
It also meant there was no step-free access to the Northern line or the DLR via the lifts at the new Cannon Street entrance for a short period, according to Transport for London.
£700m transformation of Bank station opens
The new lifts allow wheelchair-users to access the Northern line at Bank for the first time.
The Cannon Street entrance, which has six new escalators, also improves access to the DLR. The upgrade has increased capacity at the station by 40 per cent.
Monday’s official opening was described as the “final milestone” in a hugely complex subterranean construction project that began in April 2016.
The overall cost has increased from about £560m at the outset of the project in 2014.
Pre-pandemic, Bank was the third busiest interchange on the Underground. Currently, TfL estimates that more than 100,000 passengers use it to change between lines on a weekday, and about 145,000 entries and exits are made at the ticket gates.
The number of weekday passengers using “City” stations such as Bank has returned to 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels – lagging behind the weekday average of 75 per cent to 80 per cent seen across the wider Tube network.
Bank, which is connected via walkways to the District and Circle lines at Monument station, now has 27 escalators, the largest number on the network. Between the two stations there are five ticket halls, nine lifts and 10 platforms.
Ridership at stations serving the City of London has more than doubled on the 33 per cent of “normal” seen at the start of 2022.
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But the adoption of hybrid working means fewer people are travelling into the City on Monday and Friday. By contrast, weekend Tube ridership is now increasingly approaching pre-pandemic levels, with key tourist stations in central London now beginning to exceed pre-pandemic levels at certain times on Saturdays.
The upgrade at Bank includes the introduction of two 95m-long moving walkways between the Northern and Central lines. These opened last October and helped passengers to save up to nine minutes on their journeys.
A new southbound platform for the Northern line opened in May last year. The first of the improvements was a new station entrance on Walbrook. This opened in November 2018 beside the Bloomberg building and allowed easier access to the Waterloo & City line.
In total, more than 1,000m of new tunnels were dug.
Mr Khan said: “These extensive works have transformed Bank station into a world-class station, fit to serve a financial district of international renown.”
TfL commissioner Andy Lord said: “The completion of this major upgrade of one of the Tube network’s busiest interchanges is a hugely important moment for the Square Mile.
“Customers have already told us how the new interchanges are making their journeys quicker and easier.
“It’s a great reminder of how investment in our Tube network… is playing a pivotal role in helping London continue to recover from the pandemic.”
