London is a vibrant, exciting capital city, with a 24-hour party vibe. Well, that’s the marketing angle, but even in the reality occupied by those of us who don’t need ludicrous “urban designer wear” there’s a few things you can do in London well into the night. The difficulty is how to get home again… night buses are cheap, but only provide a slow and limited coverage out in the suburbs. Taxis are too expensive even for short daytime trips; out of the question for the journey home late at night.
I live in an area where local overground trains are the best method of transport, but the late-night performance depends on the post-privatisation company running your local network. If you’re lucky enough to live in Reading, for instance, there’s a restricted but regular service running right through the night. Where I live, though, the truly incompetent South Central have only just changed the last departure from Victoria… from 23:33 to 23:51… whoo, thanks South Central, you’re way too kind.
So… what I’m basically rambling around to saying is that I think the Late Tube Petition is a worthy campaign. Of course, there may well be issues I fail to understand, about why the system needs to be switched off for certain times, but it’s surely worth investigating. Even though the Underground isn’t normally the most convenient transport option for me, a late-night service could easily be combined with a number of short-run night-bus services around the outer edges of the Tube networks. Round here, some of the standard daytime buses have been extended beyond 1am, so at least *someone* realises that there’s scope for development here.