The Night Tube is expected to record 180,000 individual trips between 12.30 a.m. and 6 a.m., with more than half of them switching from existing bus and taxi routes.
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched London’s first ever weekend Night Tube service – a truly exciting moment for London.
But transportation officials were not always so keen.
We will charge standard off-peak fares for travelling on the Night Tube.
He went on: “We need to be offering those enjoying London’s night life the most convenient way of travel and, indeed, help businesses operate as effectively as possible by ensuring that staff can commute to and from work as they need”.
Concerns have been expressed about the safety of the new service, after a leaked internal assessment by operating firm Transport for London indicated sexual offences and other crimes are likely to increase.
“It’s a great idea, London claims to be a 24-hour city, and this means it really is”. A similar service operated when the city hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2012.
London’s Night Tube begins this weekend, with mayor Sadiq Khan saying it will be used by a variety of people including “a middle-aged clubber” like himself.
After proving all-night running was a technical possibility, the network’s maintenance program was radically altered so that all routine engineering work took place overnight on weekdays only.
First announced in November 2013 – and advertised as beginning back in September 2015 – a series of strikes over pay and conditions delayed the start of the much-needed service.
Khan said: “It’s wonderful that so many thousands of Londoners were able to benefit from a faster and simpler journey home overnight”. Washington and Berlin’s subways stay open all night on weekends, while NY and Copenhagen’s metros run 24/7.
What are the benefits of the Night Tube?
Londoners voted strongly to remain a European Union member but were outnumbered by voters elsewhere in England and in Wales. It turned out to be the busiest station of the night.
Backers of the service say it will boost the local economy by millions of pounds a year and create more jobs, particularly at a time of questions about the future of British economic growth in the wake of the Brexit vote.
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Famed for its simple map design and incessant warnings to “mind the gap”, it now carries over 1.3 billion passengers a year.
