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After 18 months of a pandemic-induced pause, the Night Tube is finally coming back next month, just in time for Christmas party season.
The nocturnal service won’t immediately return to the same scale it was before March 2020, with only its two busiest lines getting back into after-hours operation. As of November 27, you’ll be able to ride the Central and Victoria lines all night long on Friday and Saturday nights.
TfL’s announcement comes after Londoners petitioned the government to reinstate the Night Tube in the wake of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa’s deaths, as a way to help improve the safety of women in the capital. In a press release confirming the service’s return, the transport body said it would ‘provide a safe, quick travel option for Londoners and visitors looking to make the most of all the capital has to offer in the evenings, and those who need to travel to or from work at night’.
TfL added that the returning Night Tube would also ‘help businesses like bars, clubs and restaurants as London’s night-time economy continues to recover following the pandemic’.
Service will also return on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines ‘as soon as possible’. TfL said training new Night Tube drivers for those lines still needs to take place before they can get running again, and that each line’s return ‘has to be planned around complex vital operational and engineering closures’.
‘The reason why I was so keen to be the first mayor in London’s history to start the Night Tube in 2016 and to restart it now, after the Covid pause, is because I know how important this is to London’s thriving night-time economy, to London’s recovery and to the confidence and safety of everyone travelling home at night, particularly women and girls,’ Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a statement. ‘I am determined to make our city as safe as possible for all Londoners.’
He continued: ‘That’s why I’m delighted to see the return of the Victoria and Central Night Tube lines next month, which will make a huge difference to people travelling around our city at night and making their way home, offering them an additional safe, reliable transport option. I will continue to work with TfL and the government to do everything we can to bring back the full Night Tube network as soon as possible.’
A scheme to improve nightlife safety is extending across London.