At midnight at the bustling Oxford Circus Underground station in the heart of London, a band played and weekend revelry was only just beginning for some residents of the Big Smoke.
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Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was on board the first Victoria line service in the early hours of Saturday morning, said you could feel “the buzz” and excitement as he met passengers.
“At a time of economic uncertainty particularly following the Brexit vote – this is a welcome boost to London’s economy, ” Khan said.
The driver of the first train said the service was “great for London” and insisted he would be able to adjust to working through the night. Like Berlin and other cities, London has a network of night buses, and the agency added eight new routes to its night-bus network to complement the new late-night subway service.
“However, it is likely to offer opportunities for London establishments like bars, concert halls, theaters, sport arenas etc., which now deal with an outflow of customers trying to catch the last tube”.
The service will not only be beneficial to locals enjoying entertainment events and tourists, but also to late-night workers like nurses and security guards.
But its most important role – besides getting people to and from wherever they are going – may have been serving as shelters during the German air raids of London during World War II.
The 24-hour service will start off running on Friday and Saturday nights across the Central and Victoria lines.
Strikes over pay postponed the launch until now.
The British Transport Police are providing 100 more officers to patrol the 144 stations that will be open all night when the service begins.
Want more Travel news? Please see our terms of service for more information. Travel to London from here has stayed steady, though there was a drop after the London terrorist attack [a decade ago]. That should sound the alarm for authorities after the “Last Round on the Underground” bar crawl in 2008 – in protest at the introduction of a total booze ban – ended in disorder and 17 arrests. Night trains will make the city even more attractive for tourists and businesses, he told the Guardian. “But travelling at night used to be insane”.
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“Whether you like it or not, you can not get away from the fact that people will prefer the economy and the speed of the Tube”, said Steve Garelick, a union official representing licensed London taxi drivers.
