Londons night tube service kicks off Night bus services have also been improved to coincide with the night tubes launch, with eight routes extended to 24-hour operation to provide additional connections to areas being served by the night tube.
At 1.30am, back at Walthamstow Central, with a flurry of TfL officials, press people and a couple of Guardian Angels in attendance, Londons mayor, Sadiq Khan , boarded the train. This was now definitely, officially, the night tube.
Londons mayor, Sadiq Khan, boards a Victoria line train in front of the press pack. He pointedly praised predecessor Boris Johnson for announcing the night tube, but stressed the amount of effort that he himself had put in to get the details right not just with TfL and their workforce, but with entities such as the British Transport police and with local residents.
Cities like Berlin and Copenhagen have 24/7 metros at the weekend, and its time we had one too. By the end of the year well have the five main tube lines running.
Sadiq Khan praised predecessor Boris Johnson for announcing the project Earlier, between journeys, crews of orange-clad contractors were trying to keep the trains clean. It was the first day on the job for one of the cleaners proof that the night service is already delivering some of the promised economic benefits with new jobs.
But how good are the jobs? Asked about the conditions of those helping the service to operate not directly employed by TfL , Khan said he wanted to raise standards. I want to use the power of procurement at City Hall to ensure not only that we get value for money, but to ensure the people working on services get fair remuneration, and there is trade union recognition, he said.
By now the train was once again in central London, and passengers were gathering around the mayor to take pictures of him. I was shellshocked, said one, about seeing Khan on the Victoria line. Is it appropriate to ask for a selfie with him? she asked fellow travellers.
Bus driver Julian using the Victoria line to get home from a late shift. The night tube will make a significant difference to his weekend commute. What used to be a 90-minute journey to Finsbury Park by bus would now be just 25 minutes on the tube.
I think it would be a good idea to extend it to Thursday, he said. For a lot of people Thursday night is when the weekend starts. I wouldnt do it on a Sunday though. Everyone would stay out late and not go to work on Monday.
Charlotte Campbell busks at Oxford Circus as passengers walk by. Away from the trains, at Oxford Circus station, Charlotte Campbell had been busking through the night packing up at 3.30am. Unsurprisingly, she played her song written about the night tube, Free the Night , on more than one occasion.
Its like New Years Eve, she said. I think the night tube brings that out in people. There hasnt been any rowdiness. Its been happy drunk, not nasty drunk.
That mood was demonstrated on the escalators at Oxford Circus at 3.45am, as two groups of passengers heading in different directions started chanting and singing Night tube! at each other.
Groups of passengers cheer and sing about the night tube on the Oxford Circus escalators. Alex and Ibbi are on the right. Actors Izzy Meikle, Eros Vlahos and Charlie Rowe are part of the group of the left. One of them, Ibbi, said that the night tube will mean her getting to do more of London. Its exactly what London is about, and exactly what London needs.
Alex, who was with her, said the main benefit for him will be spending less money on Uber. It was a name that cropped up again and again in conversations about the alternative methods people would have used to get home without the tubes operating. One of Sadiq Khans party asked a passenger: Are you getting the tube instead of an Uber? But the reply was: No, we are getting the tube to go and get an Uber.
