please empty your brain below

Missing out on the night czar: a blessing or a curse?

(Ah, for the days when the night Overground would be useful for me. That'll teach me to have children.)
I do wonder if it'd be worth putting a "station closed 00:xx–05:xx until late 2018" legend under Whitechapel on the carriage maps to prevent confusion. (Better than "night services do not stop" as it may not be obvious when the cutoff time between day and night is.)
It's coming up to 10 years since another ELL milestone: when it closed as an Underground line. Glad you're here to chronicle these events, DG.
Meanwhile my local station has just one train after 7pm!

Yeah okay it's not quite Ralston where I live.
Thanks for a cheery report on an event which constitutes an improvement to the UK public realm. Good news of this kind is welcome.
LOROL trains certainly not the first "night service" as such. Its possible to travel all night on the East Croydon - Blackfrairs - St. Pancras - West Hampstead - Luton Thameslink route, trains run all night from Victoria to East Croydon and Purley plus trains run close to an all night service from Paddington to Reading. I'm not sure about every night but it certainly looks that way. Hence it would make a lot of sense for LOROL night trains to actually run to East Croydon - and thus connect with southbound night services to Gatwick Airport - buts thats another story.
My friends living near the Overground were excited about the new night service getting them home to Forest Hill, Sydenham and Norwood Junction. Until I corrected them. There's the twice hourly N171 night bus from New Cross that goes past Brockley, Honor Oak Park and the bottom end of Forest Hill, but that's it.

However, the night service will be good for people who don't live near the Overground. It's faster access to New Cross before waiting for a night bus to Erith, Plumstead and Sidcup.
In fact it would be handy to see a map published for display at all London tube and train stations showing the present extent of train and tube night services across whole of London on a FFriay and Saturday night (with inter-connecting night buses - but thats wishful thinking as the whole network is fragmented and it section only promotes itself
If tfl proposed to have a night service on the old ELL 10 years ago, it would be laughed out the door. Interesting how things change.
so I gather all the train buffs in London had a sleepless night

dg writes: I didn't see any.
I thought you would have walked to Liverpool Street, taken the Central Line for two stops, and then walked again rest of the way. (Curiously TfL journey planner suggests a similar way, with night buses standing in for walks)

dg writes: I got home 10 minutes quicker by bus.
Le Vey - there is a service out of Paddington overnight.

I don't know about now but it used to run six nights a week, going hourly.

The one night it didn't run caught me out many times. For bizarrely they didn't run in the early hours of Sunday morning...
Is there going to be Night Crossrail?
Paddington to abbey wood is mooted as having the option for 24 hour running at weekends.
With regard to the comment by Flare re Crossrail, I would have thought that Central London to Heathrow airport would be suitable for an overnight service.
Many rail routes all over the place might be "suitable" (in terms of passenger demand) for an all night service. But they may not all be "suitable" in terms of feasibility. So much engineering work can only be done overnight, and very often engineering work on particular lines requires other connecting or adjacent lines to be out of use, with dependencies that are often far from obvious.
@ John - it is noteworthy that this Night Overground service runs on tracks that TfL own and control. They can therefore amend maintenance arrangements to allow trains to run. On Network Rail tracks NR have historic rights to engineering hour access and they are *very* reluctant to release or reduce these. This is why bits of the Overground have late starts on Sundays and why LO services out of Liverpool St are closed for 4 nights a month.

I can see that Crossrail, once settled down, may well have a night service from Paddington to Abbey Wood as TfL own it and will be responsible for maintenance. Once you veer towards Stratford or Ealing / Heathrow you are on NR tracks with those historic access rights. Oh and I dread to think what Heathrow Airport would charge for night time access via its tunnel into Heathrow.

I think we should wait to see just what hours Crossrail will run to and how far out any late trains manage to reach. I suspect people may end up being a little shocked - anyone expecting frequent trains up to 0030 or 0100 may be surprised.
I really don't care for that vajazzled roundel.
Le Ver- LOROL trains haven’t run for over a year. Arriva Rail London operate the Overground concession
Er... I don't think people are breathing INTO the balloons!
Other John:

Not sure what the point of an all-night service to Heathrow is, check-ins open at 0500 and the last flights arrive at 2300 meaning that everyone should be out well before midnight under normal circumstances. Give staff an extra half hour to open and close up, and you are still within the normal operating hours of TfL train services, maybe add a 0400 departure from Paddington to Heathrow.

Luton and Gatwick are different with flights throughout the night.










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