Canary Wharf is the busiest station in East London. Pic: Matt Buck

Almost 300,000 tube users passed through Hackney and Tower Hamlets tube stations on October 9, helping to break the record for the most London underground passengers in one day.

On October 9 2015, Transport for London recorded its busiest day ever with 4.74 million passengers using the underground. This broke the record set on November 28 2014, when a reported 4.73 million individuals used the tube network.

Ten of London’s 270 tube stations are situated in Hackney and Tower Hamlets. These stations opened their barriers nearly 500,000 times a day in 2014. Canary Wharf was the busiest of all the stations in the two boroughs, with 150,000 passengers per day.

Nick Brown, London Underground’s Managing Director, said: “The Tube is carrying more customers than ever before as London’s economy and population continue to grow. This is why we are continuing to invest all of our income to modernise the service, improving reliability, train capacity and frequency and upgrading major stations to reduce congestion.”

From 2001 to 2015 the number of customer journeys has increased by 34 per cent from 970 million to 1.3 billion. London Underground is currently undergoing a huge structural redevelopment – it’s largest to date in 60 years – to deal with the growing numbers.

TfL have planned for upgrades, including new air-conditioned trains and signalling to start on the Hammersmith & City, District and Circle lines in the coming months.

Radical modernisation of the Central line is scheduled to start in the 2020s. The Bakerloo line is currently being considered for an extension into Lewisham via Old Kent Road or Camberwell and Peckham Rye. Further discussion on the extension is anticipated in 2016.

Follow Emmanuella Kwenortey on Twitter: @emankwen