TfL puts London's cycleway network at 450km, longer than the 402km Tube

Transport for London says London's cycleway network reached 450km in August 2026, against 90km in 2016, a five-fold rise over the decade.

Set against TfL's own description of the Tube, which it puts at "11 lines covering 402km and serving 272 stations", the cycleway network is now 48km longer than the Underground.

That is 360km of cycleway added in ten years, an average of 36km a year. TfL's annual report page records "35km added to our strategic cycle network through the new Cycleways" in 2024/25, with "18 new Cycleways launched", so last year matched the decade's pace rather than beating it.

The release estimates 1.5 million daily cycling journeys in 2025, up 43 per cent since 2016. TfL's Tube page says the Tube "handles up to 5 million passenger journeys a day".

The release names where the recent kilometres went. Islington gained about 4km through extensions to Cycleway 23 and Cycleway 20, and Camden 2.5km linking Camden Town and King's Cross.

Wandsworth gained 1.6km between Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common, and Kingston a 0.5km extension of Cycleway 29 on Ewell Road. TfL also completed Cycleway 62 across Lambeth Bridge and the first section of Cycleway 43, from Hyde Park to Edgware Road.

TfL's business plan page states that the 2026 plan will "support people to choose active travel by expanding our cycleway network across the capital and making further improvements to our cycle hire scheme". The page gives no figure for that spending, which sits in the 2026 Business Plan and in the annual report and statement of accounts for 2024/25. Neither document was available to consult.

TfL publishes cyclist casualty numbers separately, in its Casualties in Greater London series, which its road safety page lists for each year to 2024. Those reports were not available to consult, and the release carries no casualty figures for the decade in which the network grew fivefold.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said in the release: "I said I'd make London a byword for cycling - promise made, promise delivered."

Helen Cansick, TfL's Head of Healthy Streets and Investment, said: "450km of cycleways is a significant milestone in our mission to create an integrated cycle network."

Two more schemes are due to finish later this year. TfL says one is a 4.5km route between Harrow and Pinner, and the other a 0.7km extension of Cycleway 3 along Westbourne Terrace, near Paddington station.