Tube could run until 2am, says transport boss
THE TUBE could run until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights, the managing director of London Underground said yesterday.
Mike Brown said that now the Tube’s modernisation programme is well underway, there is scope to scale back the amount of time dedicated to late-night engineering work and allow trains to run later some of the week.
“This is not imminent and we still have much work to do, but I recognise the importance to London,” said Brown.
“There is clearly a balance to be struck between extending our hours of operation, which would mean less time to do upgrade work, and the understandable desire for a later running Tube.”
A 24-hour Tube service is believed to be off the cards.
The London Underground currently runs from 5am to around 1am, but successfully opened later during the Olympics.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson had pledged to keep the Tube running later during his 2008 election campaign, though the plan was thwarted by ongoing upgrade work.
According to TfL, up to 5,000 work underground overnight to improve and maintain the Tube network.