London’s long-awaited Night Tube service will lose nearly £20 million in its first year and won’t break even until 2033, a union has claimed.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said the new service, due to start next September, will be a “financial nightmare”, losing almost £20 million in its first full year and well over £100 million by 2033.
But Transport for London strongly denied the claim, saying there was “no doubt” that the service will pay for itself.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes described the new Friday and Saturday night Tubes as a “vanity project” of London Mayor Boris Johnson, linked to the closure of ticket offices, which are due to start in February.
He said: “We still have real concerns about safety on platforms and we would urge the mayor to delay the start of his wholesale Tube shake up for at least six months to allow those to be worked out before green lighting this project.”
But a TfL spokesman said: “The TSSA have misinterpreted the figures. As we have made clear, although running costs are being finalised, by 2018 the additional revenues from the service are expected to cover operating costs, so to say that night Tube will lose £100 million by 2033 is completely incorrect.
“In the first full year that night Tube operates we expect to generate around £19 million of revenue, not lose it.
“The night Tube will be a huge economic positive for London. The net additional output produced as a result of night Tube to London’s economy equates to an extra £360 million over 30 years.”
The London Underground is to run non-stop from Friday morning until Sunday night on a number of lines, beginning in September 2015.