Neil Williams ) gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying :

Are other similar systems closed for five hours every night?

Hamburg's used to be, but now operates 24 hours a day at weekends.
Parts of the system are rather old but have not been allowed to get
into the embarassing and disgraceful state of LUL.

Right. So there's no inherent need to close for five hours each and every
night - except, perhaps, for cracks to be wallpapered over.

The night bus system, OTOH, is easy to understand and entirely
acceptable, if a little slow. That said, the night buses are not
busy, because clubbers tend to go out late on the weekend (say leave
the house at 10pm) and return home on the first train (~5am). I can
see this culture developing in London. If it does, an *earlier* start
is what's needed, not a later finish.

I'm not necessarily thinking of all-night clubbers or "binge drinkers"
roll of eyes

I'm thinking more of people who'd go to the theatre/restaurant/cinema or
some other event with friends who may live in a variety of different
directions around London, then might actually fancy going to a pub and
having a chat over a pint or two afterwards.

*That's* the kind of social occasion that's going to benefit most from the
change of closing time to midnight or 1am.

Let's face it, if somebody wants to go and get ******ed, they can do that
until dawn already. Bar - Late Bar - Club.

Incidentally, I don't see why some consider it is not a requirement to
provide public transport for revellers. Why is it any less a
requirement to provide for them than for customers of other businesses
during the day?

Indeed.