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London 'Night Tube' weekend service to launch in September 2015

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V

Volotaire

Member
The Tube is to run a 24-hour service at weekends from 12 September 2015, it has been announced. Passengers will be able to take the so-called "Night Tube" on Fridays and Saturdays. Transport for London (TfL) said the service would cut journey times by an average of 20 minutes. The RMT union said the plans had "not been properly thought through and are a disaster waiting to happen".

There will be six trains per hour through central London on the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines, TfL said. On the Northern Line, there will be eight trains per hour to meet demand at busy stations between Leicester Square and Camden Town, it added. The service will be launched in time for England staging the Rugby World Cup, which will be hosted in 13 venues around the country, including three in London - Twickenham Stadium, Olympic Stadium and Wembley Stadium.

'Bulldozed through'

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "London is a bustling, 24-hour global city and by this time next year we'll have a 24-hour Tube service to match.

"As well as creating vital new jobs and giving a huge boost to our economy, the Night Tube will help millions of people to get around our city more easily and quickly."

Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said: "The new service will boost jobs and will benefit the economy by hundreds of millions of pounds."

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "This proposal is now being bulldozed through without any proper risk assessment or agreement on core issues.

"To make this plan work we need more tube staff not less if we are not going to be risking disaster at three o'clock in the morning when the West End is flooded with thousands of people fresh out of the pubs and clubs.

"As it stands at the moment the night tube plans are not properly thought through and are a disaster waiting to happen."
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BBC News
 
J

JordanKZ

Member
I know a few folk in London who will benefit from this. I dunno, it just seems like everytime something is changed with the undergrounds, the unions complain and complain until they get another pay rise.

I hate to say it, but the future is driverless trains.
 
S

SKINNER!

Banned
Taking the NY subway in the middle of the night/early hours of the morning was...quite the life experience. I look forward to seeing some crazy shit the next time I take a late tube in London.

But on a serious note, great service to have during the weekend. Hopefully it works well.
 
N

Nexus Zero

Member
Just in time for me to be too fookin old to bother with night buses. Perfect.

Danj said:
because unions
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Actually it's largely not their fault, for once. As far as I understand it, the subway has multiple tracks going in each direction. Which means if a part of it is down for maintenance they can keep the trains running. In London, the vast majority of the service has just one track, so they do most of the maintenance at night. Hence why it'd only be possible to run these night services a couple nights of the week, otherwise the tube would fall apart.
 
G

Grizzo

Member
Don't think we will ever see such a thing in the Paris subway (which is crap, anyway).

Some lines do stay open all night long on special occasions though (like New Year's Eve), but there are few of those and they don't stop at all the stations, just some of them.
 
Nicktendo86

Nicktendo86

Member
As usual the RMT like to have a moan, pathetic. You would have thought that they would be happy for more hours/pay for their members, but no. The sooner we have driverless trains like the DLR, the better.
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Nexus Zero said:
Actually it's largely not their fault, for once. As far as I understand it, the subway has multiple tracks going in each direction. Which means if a part of it is down for maintenance they can keep the trains running. In London, the vast majority of the service has just one track, so they do most of the maintenance at night. Hence why it'd only be possible to run these night services a couple nights of the week, otherwise the tube would fall apart.
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MTA runs construction on nights and weekends all the time.

They'll close lines or entire stations when they need to do maintenance on a certain line, and almost always do so at after midnight or over a weekend if the work is going to take longer.
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Sir_Crocodile said:
Because a lot of our system was built a hundred+ years ago - the older lines only have 2 tracks as opposed to 4, so any maintenance brings down the line.
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Again, I don't know what you think the MTA is working with.

In fact, the MTA is running three seperate hundred year old subway lines that merged to form the MTA.
 
B

Bleepey

Member
I look forward to going clubbing in places that take longer than one bus/walking distance to get home from. Cab drivers are probably weeping. I probably still will not go clubbing in fucking South London. Fuck South London.
 
jufonuk

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Bleepey said:
I look forward to going clubbing in places that take longer than one bus/walking distance to get home from. Cab drivers are probably weeping. I probably still will not go clubbing in fucking South London. Fuck South London.
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you wot m8?!!

Too good for Sarf of the river are yah ? Fucking northern side of the river dwelling caaaant etc etc

I am so glad due to current job and location I am not tied to the tubes.
 
B

Bleepey

Member
jufonuk said:
you wot m8?!!

Too good for Sarf of the river are yah ? Fucking northern side of the river dwelling caaaant etc etc

I am so glad due to current job and location I am not tied to the tubes.
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:D. I love the North/South hatred. I had the pleasure of making a small innocent joke at the expense of south of the river and one of your riff raff that had the pleasure of finding herself on the right side of the Thames took offence to me reminding her of the stench from which she came.
 
S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
StoOgE said:
Again, I don't know what you think the MTA is working with.

In fact, the MTA is running three seperate hundred year old subway lines that merged to form the MTA.
Click to expand...

A few years ago when this came up for debate here(comparing ny to london), I read an article that claimed that ny lines have enough tracks that one can be given maintenance while the line still runs. Is that untrue?
 
P

PK Strawstorm

Member
This would have been great when I was there for grad school in 2006. Had to leave parties on the other side of town well before midnight to catch the tube; otherwise my trip home was possible with buses but it would take hours.
 
V

Vivalaraza

Member
South of the river does suck though. All the good stuff is on the North side. Plus the Underground network barely stretches into the South side.
 
D

Dougald

Member
About time, this is part of the reason I don't go into London for the evenings that much

The other reason is the M25 was built to keep you lot in
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
Sir_Crocodile said:
A few years ago when this came up for debate here(comparing ny to london), I read an article that claimed that ny lines have enough tracks that one can be given maintenance while the line still runs. Is that untrue?
Click to expand...
Most lines have a local and express, or a close enough paralell line.

Typically what that does is MTA will close the express and you are then taking the local the entire way. When they close a local, you take the express past the stop, then take the other directions local back.

Our system is functionally just as old as yours, with more, deep, river crossings. Letter and number lines are actually two completely separate systems. While our operating union is not that bad, the worst is our commuter rail union, as part of the oldest continuously operating rail line in the world has ancient work rules and horrible labor.

We are fucked on new lines though, for some reason a mile of line here costs 3x as much as it does in London.
 
Woffls

Woffls

Member
Awww yeeaahhhh. There's lots of good things about this:
  • More places outside Zone 1 will stay open late.
  • Cab drivers can suck it.
  • People who work weekend nights can get the tube home.
  • MUCH safer than alternatives.
Hopefully I'll be back in London this year, and this will be something to look forward to.

There's probably going to be a few strikes over this... somehow.
 
S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
Gallbaro said:
Most lines have a local and express, or a close enough paralell line.

Typically what that does is MTA will close the express and you are then taking the local the entire way. When they close a local, you take the express past the stop, then take the other directions local back.

Our system is functionally just as old as yours, with more, deep, river crossings. Letter and number lines are actually two completely separate systems. While our operating union is not that bad, the worst is our commuter rail union, as part of the oldest continuously operating rail line in the world has ancient work rules and horrible labor.

We are fucked on new lines though, for some reason a mile of line here costs 3x as much as it does in London.
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Ah I see, thanks for that. Sounds like the article I read was a bit ignorant of the actual situation.
 
D

Dabanton

Member
Bleepey said:
I look forward to going clubbing in places that take longer than one bus/walking distance to get home from. Cab drivers are probably weeping. I probably still will not go clubbing in fucking South London. Fuck South London.
Click to expand...

South London is where it's at now.

As for this I hope all the stations will have those safety barriers up as I can already see some very silly drunk people either falling onto or jumping onto the tracks for 'bants'
 
C

CyclopsRock

Member
s-KING-BORIS-large.jpg
 
G

GeordieMark

Member
About time. Its crazy that we don't have 24 hour tube service.

No doubt this news will lead to a strike at some point in the near future while the RMT try to hold TFL to ransom. Greedy bastards.
 
jufonuk

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Bleepey said:
:D. I love the North/South hatred. I had the pleasure of making a small innocent joke at the expense of south of the river and one of your riff raff that had the pleasure of finding herself on the right side of the Thames took offence to me reminding her of the stench from which she came.
Click to expand...

Nah Bruv that is rude ...

I look down at you from the tallest building in London
 
jufonuk

jufonuk

not tag worthy
daviyoung said:
Southbank is not South London. We're keeping hold of that, you can have Southwark and everything below it.
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lol Sarf bank is ours , southerners claim it !!

Also the shard is in Southwark. What ?!?

Jealous of our Morleys and chicken cottages , stuff yah nandos


South East London doesn't need an underground network apart from the jubilee line bits of overground and dlr , just the night bus home.. Once you get to the old kent road it's all good
 
B

Bleepey

Member
jufonuk said:
Nah Bruv that is rude ...

I look down at you from the tallest building in London
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You must be confused good sir, you don't look down on us, we turn our nose up at you.Oh and London Bridge is barely South London. I don't give a damn what your postcode says.

Edit: just to be clear, everyone's sarcastic about the Victoria Line right?
 
Q

QuicheFontaine

Member
onken said:
Tokyo is the biggest city in the world and doesn't have 24hr underground. 36m people somehow survive.
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I think that's ridiculous too! I'm not suggesting that the people of London can't survive (clearly they can). The point is that with that many people there's sufficient demand that it would be cost effective to keep it open all night.

And I think Shanghai is actually the biggest city in the world? It's always a matter of how you measure it with these things though.
 
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