At 0034 the first night tube will take off from Brixton station.
Advertisement
“It can be a middle-aged clubber like me coming home after a late night out with your missus, not being stressed about the time of the last Tube”, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
‘The point is TfL staff work incredibly hard.
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”.
To complement the Night Tube, there will also be eight new 24-hour bus services in London starting tonight as well-but again, only on Friday and Saturday nights. “I’m pleased and proud that finally it’s going to happen”, Khan said.
The plan to run services beyond the midnight deadline was announced in November 2013 and was to kick-off in September last year, but strikes over pay delayed the start by almost another year.
As I wrote here, it wasn’t about the money.
An agreement was finally reached in March this year. “While the night tube is a positive development for the city, it is not expected that this alone will draw in more tourists”, Euromonitor International Travel Analyst, Wouter Geerts told CNBC via email.
Greater London Assembly (GLA) member for Havering and Redbridge, Keith Prince, believes the Night Tube’s introduction is overdue.
Transport for London (TfL) says London’s night-time economy will open up to a host of new opportunities, with the Night Tube supporting around 2,000 permanent jobs and boosting the capital’s economy by more than 100 million USA dollars a year.
It promises to end the dilemma faced by anyone who has been out to enjoy the British capital’s nightlife: to end the party early and catch the final train at midnight, or courageous the city’s notoriously jarring overnight bus network.
Although the general price of London property is high, there are still a number of affordable options for those hoping to take advantage of the new Night Tube service.
A Facebook group called for parties to celebrate the new service. In this non-stop, and online-first age, a two-minute website outage could lead to both a loss of custom and reputation.
Advertisement
The all-night services are due to spread to the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines this autumn, and Transport for London has plans to introduce 24-hour running on the subsurface Underground network later on, as well as the Docklands Light Railway and parts of London Overground.
