London's 'Night Tube' Is Finally Going to Happen

It’s hard to believe that it’s really happening. After 18 months of wrangling that cast the whole project in doubt, London’s first 24-hour subway service will launch this summer. According to an announcement by two rail workers’ unions Monday, two London Tube lines will run all night on weekends starting this August. By September, a total of five lines will offer late night service. This is surely great news for any Londoner who goes out late but shudders at the price of taxis or the mayhem of the night bus. By encouraging more people to stay out later, it should also give the city’s nightlife economy a major boost.

But while the launch of the Night Tube is welcome, the project is not so much sprinting past the finish line as staggering over it, panting hard. The service will arrive almost a year late, and its introduction will now be staggered. Meanwhile London has endured a full year of transit strikes, as unions and City Hall slugged it out over the plans. So why has the issue proved so divisive?