Brixton Buzz reports that we are goint to get an all night tube service on weekends from 12 September 2015.
Transport for London has announced the starting date for the long awaited all night weekend tube service, with 24-hour tube train services starting from 12 September 2015.
Running through Friday and Saturday nights, the five “night tube” lines – Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines – can expect six trains an hour (with 8/hour on the Northern). There are also plans to expand the service across other lines in the coming years.
Not all stations will be served by 24-hour tube trains, but Brixton, Stockwell, Oval and Kennington will all enjoy all-night tubes. Huzzah!
[Night Tube map – click for full size image]
Boris Johnson, mayor of London – who had made a pledge last year that the all night service would be coming to London – commented:
Running trains all through the night was once thought impossible, but with the huge investment we’ve put in and upgrades that have been delivered we stand ready to take the tube to the next level. The evolution of the night tube will without doubt make London an even better place to live, work, visit and invest.”
Mike Brown, the managing director of London Underground, said: “Already over half a million Londoners use the Tube after 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and the introduction of the night tube, which will cut journey times and open up new possibilities across the nighttime economy, is a historic step in our modernisation of London Underground.
With night bus usage having apparently soaring by 270% since 2000, the 24-hour tube would play a key role in alleviating the pressure on the buses, as well as make journeys back to Brixton much quicker.
The unions have some doubts about the scheme though, with Mick Cash, the new RMT general secretary, telling the Guardian:
Whilst RMT is not against night running of the tube in principle, provided all staff involved are properly rewarded and that safety and security is thoroughly worked out and agreed, the truth is that the mayor threw this plan in as a diversion from his massive cuts and closures programme that will axe a thousand staff and decimate services and safety.
So long as the staff are adequately paid we’re very much looking forward to the introduction of all night services to Brixton, although we suspect that it will make the already bustling night economy even busier.