How will transit station closures affect Londoners

As part of the response to alleviating the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Transport for London (TfL) closed 42 transit stations in order to reduce transit services on 4th May 2020. Understanding the impacts of station closures on Londoners’ travel is essential for policymakers and planners when allocating transport services during the lockdown period. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how the closed station areas are connected to other areas in London through using NUMBAT open-source data. Overall, our findings show that the London transit network is relatively robust to the planned station closures during the lockdown period, and most passengers are still able to complete their journeys via alternative routes or stations. However, we also identified three stations, namely Southwark, Bermondsey and Clapham South, for which passengers would have to spend additional time accessing neighbouring stations or are strongly relying on bus services to complete their journeys. This reflects socio-spatial inequalities specific to those stations, as a result of the station closures, meaning that certain groups of passengers would be unable to obtain equal access to key life opportunities compared to other groups.