please empty your brain below

Indeed - running it 24 hours on Sunday seems slightly pointless. Unless stopping it for 4 hours would cost more than keeping going all night?
The cynic in me wonders if 2015 is close to an election year?

I see 2016 is the next one - so if this starts late 2015 then yes it feels like electioneering. So they get to masquerade the ticket office news and then can use it again to score points. Will this be something that keeps on giving (something to someone?)
My assumption when I saw the Night Tube map was that the engineering work issue has probably been tackled in a highly obvious way - you concentrate engineering work on the Night Tube lines on the other five days a week, and focus as much on the non Night Tube lines.

Although I also read that the recent upgrades will help in this respect by reducing the amount they'll need to do.

One interesting thing that someone pointed out to me was the Northern Line. After all these years of trying to split it, here we have a full on Northern Line going to Morden via Charing Cross. Of course Charing Cross is a more sensible choice than the Bank branch but it will be interesting to see what happens when Battersea branch opens.
I'd much rather they applied their resources to giving us a perfect service throughout the current operating hours rather than the like of an every 10 minutes 'Good Service'.

Also, since they increased the number of Central Line trains recently, there's been more faults and breakdowns on the Central because there's less time to do maintenance on them - to the point where someone suggested getting new trains for the Waterloo & City line, freeing up the current stock used there (which is '92 Central Line stock) to help plug the gap on the Central. So - what's it going to be like when there's even more trains running at the weekend, and even less time to perform maintenance?

Plus, pity the poor staff clutching their expensive tablets who at 2am in the morning having to deal with very rowdy passengers on their way home.

My 'favourite' part was how the ES claimed it was all "thanks to them" and their series of articles which highlighted the need of 24 hours tube trains earlier in the year ... yeah, right. It's all thanks to you, Evening Standard, all you.
This night service seems like an easy-win to me.

It seems ... unlikely ... that the same overnight ("fluffer") maintenance schedule was really going on every night the more modernized lines.

The Victoria Line closes at around 0100 and reopens at about 0530: keeping it open from 0100 to 0530 with a 4tph service means running all of 18 services through the night: which is what runs in 30 minutes though the day, now it has a 33 trains per hour timetable.
Matthew Beard, the Standard's transport editor, claims, '...and passenger forecasts suggest huge demand for the Night Tube means it will pay for itself in extra fare revenue.'

Where are these priced forecasts? How come this financially good news is not freely available? Surely, if Matthew Beard's assertion is correct then the tube - with its current daytime overloading would be a net contributor to the exchequer?
Domo - not necessarily. The tube will have a number of fixed costs and a number of variable costs.
Londons cab drivers aren't going to be happy about this.
Excellent!
What BoJo gives with one hand he takes away with another:

http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/tfl-ponders-bus-cuts-to-meet-potential-funding-shortfall/201328517
Geoff - There will be the same amount of trains running at the weekend, just some will run all night.

Domo - I expect the difference in running an extra 6 hours of 4tph trains compared to not running them is "minimal"
How will this generate extra revenue, as is claimed? Most passengers will just delay their return journeys, not make extra ones, and in the suburbs probably will simply bunk it due to the reduced (or non-existent) staff numbers. Hard luck if you live on the District Line - still I (and DG) can walk from Mile End. Not so good if you live in Dagenham though...
when does the maintenance get done, then, the walk-throughs every 48 hours ?
I assume these tube lines will still be subject to weekend shut downs for engineering work. I'd be interested to find out in reality how many weekends a year the 24 hour service will operate.

Any idea when the sub-service lines will go 24 hour?

The 24 hour tube might provide some respite to the capital's homeless. Providing they raise enough for an Oyster fare they can travel in the warmth overnight which is so off the most dangerous time for them to be in doorways.
'The trains won't run as regularly as during the day'

Yes they will, but not as frequently.
First of all this is obviously corresponds to lines that have been modernised recently and the Piccadilly which is in the process of being modernised as well.

Looking at TFL programme of works it looks like the subsurface network won't be finished until 2018. Which is when I suspect some form of night network will arrive on these lines.

After which the last line to get a service will be the Bakerloo line, as that is the last to be upgraded.

Some may dismiss this as a gimmick, but I think there may actually be a business case here.

Watching the recent doc on the BBC about the bus network and in particular the night bus network it was interesting to see that it seen such a massive increase in passenger numbers with some routes running almost daytime frequencies.

I would not be surprised that the length of lines opened correspond to the most used night bus routes and with passenger numbers rising it might be easier and cheaper to move some of these people by train than fitting them all in to buses.

It will have to be seen whether the increase in capacity leads to reduced use of the night buses where they could make savings or the extra capacity is swallowed up by extra passengers.

It was interesting to read that the original expectations for the Overgrounf network was for there to be a big fall in bus use in certain areas and some diversion off other railway lines. Instead the new capacity has been swamped and more people are traveling.

So in answer to someone else's question, I really doubt this is just a case shifting demand around. Like a lot lump of labour/capital/trade/wealth fallacies increased capacity does not lead to beggar thy neighbour.

Faster and higher capacity journey's from central London will mean more will go out in the evening.

A, because they will no longer have to contend with hours long bus journeys and so make going out on the town such a big effort (reserved for special events)

B, no longer having to fork out for a cab means that you can spend the money on more trips out than you do now or spend the money saved on posher bars and restaurants etc.

Either way the West End and other places on the tube will become even busier on the weekend.
Picking up on your point about the Overground, the other week when I read the headlines about the first drop in bus passengers in years, I assumed it was due to the Overground taking away some passengers who had previously used buses.
24 hour service on tube lines. Meanwhile London council-tax payers in south east London have to make do with half-hourly services on Southeastern between 8pm and 12:30am thanks to the Department of Tramsport and Kent MPs scuppering plans for TfL to take over metro services.
Great news. Many a time I have not gone out or gone home early as I would have to take the very slow night buses or expensive cabs. Even if engineering needs to be done 10% of weekends that 90% of the time with a far better service. I think it will be lucrative directly, and more widely boost late night establishments massively.

Now here's hoping for 24 hr Thameslink and Crossrail running in 2018.
Can't help but think that they have to be careful with their staffing rotas. Many TfL station staff can't afford an apartment in central London so they can easily get to work. Many travel in by NR services that won't be running. In some cases they even sleep in the station if they have to open up, say 6.30 Sunday morning.
Audrey, there used to be special buses and taxis for station staff to get home
after the system closed down. don't know if these still run










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