London's long-awaited
all-night Tube service starts on two lines on Friday night after a year-long
delay.
The launch was delayed
after transport bosses took months to negotiate new contracts with the unions.
The service will run on the
Central and Victoria lines through the night on Fridays and Saturdays, from
12.30am to 5.30am, during which period there will be six trains an hour.
Around 100 British
Transport Police (BTP) officers will be on patrol across the network.
It will be expanded to the
Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines in the autumn.
Plans for the service were
first announced in November 2013 and it was expected to begin in time for the
Rugby World Cup in September last year, under former London mayor Boris
Johnson's watch.
Current London Mayor Sadiq
Khan, who has recorded welcome messages which will be played over the public
address system at Oxford Circus, said his predecessor "gave up" on
the project.
He said: "It's not me
making a cheap point, but the previous mayor did announce the Night Tube start
date on one occasion and that wasn't met, on a second occasion, that wasn't
met, on a third occasion, that wasn't met, and then gave up.
"My point is TfL staff
work incredibly hard. It can't be beyond the wit of a full-time mayor and TfL
to make this work properly.
"When I see the
enthusiasm from employers in London, investors to London, tourists in London,
about the Night Tube, it's surprising it's taken us this long to get it."
He said just two of the
five lines were being opened initially because "we don't want a big bang
(with) errors and mistakes".
He added: "There may
well be teething problems when we first begin but the key thing is to learn
from that and to improve upon that before we unveil the other lines later on
this year."
London Underground (LU)
estimates that 200,000 people will use the all-night service each weekend once
it is up and running on all five lines.
GREAT GREAT BRITAIN .WELL DONE STAFF OF TeL .MORE GREASE TO YOUR ELBOW .
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