Mayor pushes ‘London is open’ message at Night Tube launch

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, reiterated his mantra that “London is open” at the launch of the London Underground’s night trains.

Since the UK voted to leave the European Union, Khan has repeated his message that London is open for business, investors, artists and visitors. It is now also open for revellers and night-workers wishing to travel by Underground.

“The Night Tube is going to provide a huge boost to our capital and very clearly demonstrates that London is open,” said Khan as he travelled on the first night-time Victoria line train out of Brixton on Friday (19 August).

Transport for London (TfL) recorded around 50,000 customers using the Underground on its opening night of services on the Central and Victoria lines. The night service will be rolled out on the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Northern lines in the autumn. There are also plans to expand the service to parts of the Metropolitan, Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines after modernisation and on parts of the London Overground in 2017 and the Docklands Light Railway by 2021. Eight new bus routes will now run around the clock to complement the Underground’s night services.

The mayor is investing £3.4 million towards policing for the Night Tube. About 100 British Transport Police officers patrolled the network on the launch of the service and only one arrest was made. The mayor claimed as many officers will be out during the night as would be seen during the day.

TfL estimated that the night-time service will support around 2,000 permanent jobs in London’s night-time economy, which will be boosted by around £77 million a year. Over 500 of these jobs have been created directly through the operation of the service, with new part-time drivers, station staff, maintenance workers and service control staff employed and new British Transport Police officers working on the network.