Night Tube: changes to NR and buses?
 

Over on the London Reconnections blog, there are plenty of interesting
comments about the Night Tube proposal:
http://www.londonreconnections.com/2...-1-night-tube/

What do we think over here about changes to London's other rail lines
and buses?

On the bus side, I remember many years ago a "Northern Line" night
bus. Would it make sense for the bus network to be adjusted so that
there are line-named night bus services that can simply be replaced by
the underground on relevant nights? (As done in Berlin.) Or would
keeping some of the routes that we already have at +/- weekday
headways through the weekend be better?

South London naturally gets less (or no) benefit from the Night Tube
idea. We can't change history, but if the Night Tube is a success,
this seems to me to be another reason to give TfL responsibility for
more NR routes and to press for introduction of later trains on those
lines where possible.

Richard.

Night Tube: changes to NR and buses?
 

On Wed, 27 Nov 2013 18:07:22 +0000, Richard
wrote:
On the bus side, I remember many years ago a "Northern Line" night
bus. Would it make sense for the bus network to be adjusted so that
there are line-named night bus services that can simply be replaced
by
the underground on relevant nights? (As done in Berlin.)

I think that's a really good idea and would improve night bus
ridership substantially.

Neil

--
Neil Williams. Use neil before the at to reply.

Night Tube: changes to NR and buses?
 

While whizzing on empty roads tonight from Embankment to Becontree with
only one stop for a red traffic light by Tower Hill, I was thinking what
a stupid idea night tube is. Express night buses is a better idea.

On a weekend night, the N29 takes 42 minutes northbound from Trafalgar
Square to Wood Green (full) and 32 minutes southbound (largely empty).
The Piccadilly Line first train from Wood Green to Piccadilly Circus
takes 21 minutes. Since the N29 goes out of its way to serve Camden, a
more direct route which only served major stops would come within a few
minutes of matching the Piccadilly Line.

Lets try another. N155 Morden to Elephant 27 minutes most nights, 36
minutes weekends. Elephant to Morden 34 minutes most nights, 42 minutes
weekends. Northern Line 25 minutes northbound, 28-29 minutes southbound.
So basically improved traffic management in Clapham High Street at night
and the bus might even beat the tube.

Conclusion:
1) Forget about night tube
2) For most of the traffic lights, one direction gets a flashing green
to tell them they have the priority, and the other direction gets
flashing red and amber alternately to tell them they have to give way.
Obviously they would be converted to LED if they had not already been
converted.
3) Introduce express night buses - example, instead of the N29 running
every three minutes from Traf Sq to Wood Green and then every 10 minutes
to Enfield, make the 29 run 24/7 to Wood Green and have a N329 at night
which takes some different route through Central London, then runs
non-stop to Turnpike Lane, and then serves every stop to Enfield. I
suspect this would require slightly fewer buses and drivers at weekends
than current operation.