Night Tube Launched this Weekend

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Over 50,000 journeys taken in first days of operation

Night Tube services launched on the Central and Victoria lines this Friday and Saturday, August 19 and 20, with services on the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines following in the autumn.

In all, 50,000 customer journeys were completed using the new Night Tube service. One of the busiest stations was Oxford Circus which saw 6,500 people tapping in, while Stratford station saw 4,250 customers tapping out.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan launched the new service in the early hours of the morning when he travelled from Brixton on the first Victoria Line Night Tube.

Sadiq Khan said: “It’s wonderful that so many thousands of Londoners were able to benefit from a faster and simpler journey home overnight. The Night Tube is going to provide a huge boost to our capital and very clearly demonstrates that London is open. It was a real pleasure for me to see first-hand how workers and those who had been out enjoying everything our city has to offer could take advantage of this fantastic new service.”

Mark Wild, London Underground’s Managing Director, said: “Night Tube got off to a superb start last night with thousands of people making use of the new services. I was out on the network myself last night seeing our staff and British Transport Police officers helping customers travel around the Capital safely.”

Transport for London (TfL) has also confirmed plans to expand the night time service to parts of the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines once its modernisation programmes are complete. Services could also operate on parts of the London Overground in 2017.

TfL says trains on the Central line will run approximately every ten minutes between White City through the centre of London to Leytonstone and approximately every 20 minutes between Ealing Broadway and White City.

When it launches, the Piccadilly line service will see trains running on average every ten minutes from Cockfosters through Hammersmith and West London including a stop at Turnham Green to Heathrow Terminal 5.

Altogether 144 tube stations will be open during the night on Fridays and Saturdays, and TfL says all stations will continue to be staffed by London Underground employees while train services are running.

There will also be an enhanced policing presence during the overnight services with the British Transport Police (BTP) providing more than 100 officers to patrol the stations. More BTP Police Community Support Officers will also be out on the network to assist passengers, and support police officers, as required.

You can download a full Night Tube map here.

Standard off-peak fares will be charged and Day Travelcards cover journeys made until 4.29am the next day.

TfL adds that there is an extensive network of night buses and some routes have been extended to serve Night Tube stations to help meet the increased demand. You can downloand Night Bus maps here.

There will also be taxi ranks outside many stations, including local stations Shepherd's Bush and Ealing Broadway.

TfL says the new service has been made possible thanks to the continued modernisation of significant parts of the Underground network and improved levels of reliability.

They claim the Night Tube will cut night-time journeys by an average of 20 minutes, with some cut by more than an hour. It will also play a vital role in opening up London's night-time economy, supporting almost 2,000 permanent jobs and boosting the economy by £360m.

Late night Tube use has increased at double the rate of day-time trips and Night bus usage has risen by 173% since 2000. There are already over half a million users of the Tube after 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

August 21, 2016