Everything you need to know to get around London as millions pour into capital for Queen’s lying in state
LONDON is facing the "biggest event and challenge" in its history as more than one million people are expected to pour into the capital to pay their respects to the Queen.
Andy Byford, TfL's commissioner, said planning for the Queen's lying in state and funeral is more complicated than the 2012 Olympics.
He said this was largely because it is "impossible" to accurately predict crowd sizes.
Mr Byford said TfL is "used to dealing with big crowds" and will take measures such as temporarily restricting access to the busiest Tube stations.
Operators such as Southeastern, Chiltern Railways, Great Western Railway confirmed they will all run overnight services to and from London Victoria.
These will also go between Marylebone and Paddington stations respectively in the next few days.
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And mourners waiting for the next departure in the early hours of the morning are expected to be invited to sit on stationary trains at stations such as Charing Cross, Euston, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Victoria.
Network Rail warned visitors of "unprecedented travel demand in the capital".
Southeastern will run overnight services every two hours from today until next Monday.
These will go from Victoria to Dartford, Gillingham, Orpington and Ashford; Charing Cross to Orpington and Tunbridge Wells; and St Pancras to Ashford.
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Chiltern will operate two additional overnight trains every day until Monday from Oxford to Marylebone, leaving at 1.35am and arriving at 3am.
A return journey will leave Marylebone at 3.15am and arrive in Oxford at 4.38am.
Great Western Railway said extra services in the very early morning and late evening will be laid on next Monday to take people towards London and back home again.
It added that all services "are expected to be extremely busy".
The extra trains are now being displayed on journey planners such as Trainline.
But a rail industry source told that the limited number of overnight services means they are 'not something people should be relying on'.
There is likely to be further strain on the rail network because London Victoria Coach Station will be shut next Monday due to many of the roads around it being closed - with National Express switching services to Wembley.
And Avanti West Coast said it is running up to four additional services a day in each direction between London and Manchester up to and including this Friday.
It will add a total of around 16,000 seats to its capacity.
TfL will be directing passengers to other stations to "spread the load", he added.
The situation is being managed "minute by minute" from a command centre alongside other agencies and Government departments, Mr Byford, the group's commissioner revealed.
Mr Byford said: "The most recent approximation or estimate is that there will be around potentially up to 750,000 people in the queue for lying in state, which is itself a huge number.
"But then if you take the whole 10-day mourning period and the various events that happen during that - obviously some happened elsewhere - but even the London element of that, we are talking well north of a million people.
"So this is huge. This is the biggest event and challenge that TfL has faced in its history, and we must rise to that challenge.
"With something like the Olympics, you know what the events are, where they are, and you know what the numbers will be because it's ticketed.
"This is more challenging. It's over a long period and although there are estimates, it is impossible to say with certainty how many people will turn up to the various elements, so we've assumed the highest possible number and we're aligning our service to match that."
London Underground stations near Buckingham Palace have seen a surge in passenger numbers since the Queen died on Thursday.
TfL figures show more than 19,000 people started or finished journeys at Hyde Park Corner station on Tuesday - double the total on the same day last week.
Green Park has been made an exit only station to prevent overcrowding.
Across the Tube network as a whole, TfL recorded 2.99 million journeys on Tuesday, up 8 percent compared with a week earlier.
A special service will run on the Elizabeth Line railway between Paddington and Abbey Wood on Sunday to ease the pressure on other parts of London's transport network.
Mr Byford added: "We have recruited literally an army of people from across TfL.
"We've cancelled non-essential meetings.
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"I've asked everyone to step up, I've asked everyone to volunteer, and the response has been fantastic.
"We've dropped everything in order to pull out all the stops and send Her Majesty off in style with an excellent transport offering."
