Night Tube to be suspended until March 2021
Transport for London have confirmed there are no plans to bring back the Night Tube in the immediate future, with transport unions saying it will not be before March 2021.
Tube union RMT have been told the overnight service will not run until the new year.
A TfL spokesperson said: “With the current lockdown regulations in place normal demand for the Night Tube doesn’t exist.
“This is expected to build back up over time, but before reintroducing the Night Tube we will need to be confident that we can continue to provide extensive services for the higher demand times of day.
“Consequently we don’t plan to restart the service in the immediate future, but we keep everything under review”.
Night time services were suspended with immediate effect on 18 March in an attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Commenting on the announcement, Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey said it would “hammer key workers and hinder the recovery of the night time economy”.
But a mayoral spokesperson said that funding for the night time service was not prioritised as a condition of the government’s recent bailout of TfL.
RMT union general secretary Mick Cash said the decision was a reminder that TfL would continue to require government support as it seeks to rebuild after the crisis.
The network has already received a £1.6bn bailout from the state to help patch the gaping hole in its finances caused by the epidemic.
Fare revenues, on which TfL relies for the majority of its revenue, have dropped 90 per cent since the government imposed lockdown measures in March.
Cash said: “The confirmation that there will be no night tube until March next year is a reminder of how fragile the situation is across London’s transport services as we slowly emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown.
“RMT has made it clear that we will take whatever action is required to protect the jobs and conditions of the staff who have kept essential workers moving throughout this crisis. There must be no return to cuts and austerity.”
As another condition of the bailout, TfL has agreed to ramp up services to 100 per cent of pre-crisis levels by the end of the month.
In order to do so, a spokesperson said that it had had to move Night Tube drivers to the daytime service in order to increase the frequency of trains.
Bailey added: “Key workers such as nurses need the Night Tube to get to their shifts.
“Without the night tube those journeys will be longer and more arduous – hardly fair.
“The night time economy has been decimated by the coronavirus and it will need the Mayor’s assistance to recover as lockdown is eased.
“Suspending it will actively harm the recovery of one of our most important hospitality sectors”.
UK Hospitality chief executive Katie Nicholls said: Our hope is that as the capital’s late night businesses reopen, it is in tandem with the night tube restarting.
“The importance of strong trading around the clock cannot be understated as we emerge from lockdown – day time and night time licensed venues support each other and the surrounding businesses as well.”
As a condition of the bailout, TfL announced today that free travel for freedom pass holders would be suspended during morning peak hours from 15 June.
The move, which is temporary, will these cards are automatically set to be not valid during the morning peak period.
They will remain valid at all other times.