Tory mayoral candidate calls for Night Tube and Waterloo & City line to open
Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey is urging Sadiq Khan to reopen the entire London Underground network, including the Night Tube and City & Waterloo line.
Bailey also called for all Transport for London (TfL) staff to be given a free flu jab this winter.
TfL closed the City & Waterloo line – which is a two-stop service that goes between bank and Waterloo Tube stations – when London was hit by the first Covid wave in March.
It is slated to be closed indefinitely, with the transport body saying Waterloo & City drivers have been seconded to work on the Central line.
The Night Tube has also been closed since the first national lockdown, with overall Tube passenger numbers still less than 40 per cent of pre-Covid figures.
Canada Corporation chief Catherine McGuinness recently wrote to TfL bosses to lobby them to reopen the Waterloo & City line, which is a key commuter route for Square Mile workers.
Bailey has now also called for the line to open.
“I’m calling on Sadiq Khan to work with the government on a plan to vaccinate TfL staff for flu as a priority and reopen both the Waterloo & City line and restore the night-time Tube,” he said.
“TfL staff keep our city, our commuters and our economy moving. They are key workers by any definition of the term — and they deserve all the protections that go with it.”
TfL said it was continuing to closely monitor customer demand on the Tube to inform its decision about when to re-open the Waterloo & City line.
It is monitoring daily arrivals at Waterloo station, which have remained low, and demand on alternative routes between Waterloo and Bank.
A spokesperson for Khan said: “TfL continues to review the suspension of the Night Tube and the Waterloo & City line.
“Drivers have been moved to work on other lines, which has helped TfL to run a full planned service for several months where the demand is far greater and to enable better social distancing.
“[The mayor] has also done all he can to protect our heroic transport workers – including calling for face coverings to be made mandatory months before the Government saw sense – and TfL staff are able to claim back the cost of the flu vaccine.”