London Night Tube is Here

[Deerfold]

When the N29 route started it required just one bus to operate it. Now it requires 37 buses and runs 18 buses per hour (every 3-4 minutes) at the weekend. With the Night Tube, many of those passengers will have much faster journeys.

Thus the plan to drop the frequency to "only" 12 bph once the Northern line Night Tube starts.

 

[Welly]

Question - what will happen to the "fluffers" on those lines with night service? Ie what will be done to prevent dust from accumulating in the tunnels and becoming a fire risk?

 

[AM9]

Question - what will happen to the "fluffers" on those lines with night service? Ie what will be done to prevent dust from accumulating in the tunnels and becoming a fire risk?

It will be done during the five other night shutdowns.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Do they still have fluffers? I thought it was all done by machine these days?

 

[bramling]

I can't see it making that much difference (certainly not on the Victoria line!); with trains always arriving into depots well after 01:00 and leaving before 05:00 - plus engineers' trains overnight, etc

Depends.

Historically little routine work tended to happen on Friday and Saturday nights anyway, except for emergency works and big projects.

The big projects will still happen just like with normal weekend engineering work.

Where there is a risk is that if a piece of infrastructure develops a problem from Friday morning onwards, the first opportunity to gain access to it will be after close of traffic on Sunday. This certainly poses risks to the daytime service at weekends, and perhaps a lesser risk to Monday morning if an issue can't be fixed on the Sunday night.

 

[Domh245]

Where there is a risk is that if a piece of infrastructure develops a problem from Friday morning onwards, the first opportunity to gain access to it will be after close of traffic on Sunday. This certainly poses risks to the daytime service at weekends, and perhaps a lesser risk to Monday morning if an issue can't be fixed on the Sunday night.

If it is severe enough, you can shut down the service to repair it as you would do during any other day if something went wrong.

 

[Nym]

Do they still have fluffers? I thought it was all done by machine these days?

What machines?

There is no Tunnel Cleaning Train that works any more

 

[Busaholic]

I wonder if they will be able to cut the number if night buses, now that people can use the tube?

The London Mayor said it was good for people who do shift work. It well be providing they are working on the nights it runs.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

There were some detailed plans in place to cut the extra buses used on Friday and Saturday nights on routes that roughly parallel underground lines, but, following the postponement of the Night Tube from last year, it was decided to wait and see how it beds down before they are implemented. Almost certainly, they will need to be tweaked at the very least: some low-paid night workers might prefer to continue using lower-priced buses, for instance.

 

[317 forever]

Thus the plan to drop the frequency to "only" 12 bph once the Northern line Night Tube starts.

I think it might be better to wait to cut the N29 frequency until the Piccadilly Line night service starts.

 

[evergreenadam]

I think it might be better to wait to cut the N29 frequency until the Piccadilly Line night service starts.

Piccadilly and Northern night services are due to start on the same night, so no problem there.

 

[johntea]

I remember one year we were staying in the South Mimms Premier Inn and had to get back one night there from Leicester Square, the night bus took about 2 hours to Barnet then a taxi to the hotel vs 30 or so minutes using the tube. Of course we later realized it would have been a lot simpler to go Kings Cross > Potters Bar on National Rail then a taxi from there but you live and learn

Another benefit of the Underground stations is that they're generally easy to find, compared to the bus stops spread all over the place and without a smart phone with access to maps you're a bit buggered!

 

[jon0844]

That would be news to me...? Is this a rumour or have you read it somewhere, OOI?

Not heard anything, but I was just assuming that if usage is high enough, there could be an increase in frequency to nearer daytime frequencies?

 

[bramling]

Not heard anything, but I was just assuming that if usage is high enough, there could be an increase in frequency to nearer daytime frequencies?

Technically there's no reason why not. But remember every train will need a specially recruited driver, and the pro-rata cost of Night Tube drivers is higher than a normal driver because the company has to incur all the overheads of a full-time driver (training, uniform, competence assurance etc etc), whilst only getting back two shifts worth of work instead of five.

Early days yet, but this weekend's loadings were not particularly high. The Victoria Line scarcely saw trains loadings above 10%, with some trains 5% down to even zero. These are the sort of loadings which could be carried on a single night bus.

 

[bb21]

Am I the only one to find that publicity has been rather poor this time round?

I certainly don't remember seeing much about the night tube in the streets until very close to the start.

 

[Busaholic]

I remember one year we were staying in the South Mimms Premier Inn and had to get back one night there from Leicester Square, the night bus took about 2 hours to Barnet then a taxi to the hotel vs 30 or so minutes using the tube. Of course we later realized it would have been a lot simpler to go Kings Cross > Potters Bar on National Rail then a taxi from there but you live and learn

Another benefit of the Underground stations is that they're generally easy to find, compared to the bus stops spread all over the place and without a smart phone with access to maps you're a bit buggered!

You must have picked a bad night, because the N20 is timed to take about 67 minutes on a Friday or Saturday night, and less than an hour on other nights, from Leicester Square to the terminus in Barnet.

 

[Lrd]

Am I the only one to find that publicity has been rather poor this time round?

I certainly don't remember seeing much about the night tube in the streets until very close to the start.

I think the press office were being very careful with announcing it as actually happening until it was very much confirmed and everyone and everything was ready. Just in case something went wrong and it ended up delayed for whatever reason.

 

[plcd1]

Am I the only one to find that publicity has been rather poor this time round?

I certainly don't remember seeing much about the night tube in the streets until very close to the start.

Really? TfL were going bezerk via Twitter for a week before the launch and it was on BBC local news for about four nights running. I don't use the tube very much these days but I've certainly seen posters advertising the service.

I agree there haven't been billboard posters or adverts on the sides of buses but given the non stop media coverage (well it felt like it!) I'd expect a reasonable number of people to have heard something about it even if they weren't going to use it themselves.

There's clearly been a relatively "soft" launch to try to avoid any disasters and the service being tarnished before it's really got going. I suspect the line that will be hardest to cope with will be the Piccadilly because everything's old, a bit fragile and service recovery is notoriously poor. You also have the Heathrow factor.

If there is going to be any great promotional "push" then it'll be in the run up to Christmas and New Year when people are out later, in "party" mood and the service will hopefully have bedded down successfully from LU / BTP's viewpoint.

 

[bb21]

Maybe that explains it. Unfortunately I do not use twitter or listen to the radio. I only have my Mark 1 eyeballs.

I won't be the only one either, I don't think.

I don't even know TfL have a twitter account nowadays, after previously searching in vein for one on social media.

And a week before launch? Well, that was pretty late compared to what many people would anticipate, and in any case I was in hospital this past week so did not get much of a chance to see it, in that case.

 

[jon0844]

I'm not sure TfL went that mad, but obviously the media did as it's a big thing. TfL tried to spin it by saying that they've taken their time (ignoring the whole dispute thing) but I let them off for that!

 

[MikeWh]

I don't even know TfL have a twitter account nowadays, after previously searching in vein for one on social media.

You've not been following my attempts to ask why I'm required to have extra money on a capped Oyster when travelling from Gatwick Airport then?:cry:

 

[bb21]

You've not been following my attempts to ask why I'm required to have extra money on a capped Oyster when travelling from Gatwick Airport then?:cry:

I rely on you to recount such stories at forum events.

 

[gavin]

Night services will start on the Jubilee Line from 7th October.

 

[MrB]

Night services will start on the Jubilee Line from 7th October.

Any idea about Northern and Picc. yet?

 

[lonogrol]

Any idea about Northern and Picc. yet?

Pic Line Train Op Training won't be finished until Mid january at the very earliest...but I suppose it's possible they might be able to run a limited service before then perhaps over part of the line...with a possible full service maybe end of the year (utilising the spares or staff on annual leave Cover weeks)

 

[MrB]

Pic Line Train Op Training won't be finished until Mid january at the very earliest...but I suppose it's possible they might be able to run a limited service before then perhaps over part of the line...with a possible full service maybe end of the year (utilising the spares or staff on annual leave Cover weeks)

Thanks.