Bad news folks, it looks like we’ll be shelling out cash from our own pockets again this year as Transport for London has confirmed that they will not be offering free travel during New Year’s Eve. Tubes and buses will still be running as normal of course to help people get back home safely from their festivities as they ring in the new year, but it sadly won’t be on TfL.
This marks the fourth year of Transport for London’s break from the tradition of providing free travel for Londoners, first breaking the streak in 2020. During pandemic times how could we blame them? The pandemic had a huge impact on passenger numbers and in turn TfL’s finances. In 2021, we hoped the tradition would return but alas, three years down the line and here we still are. Some of you may be thinking that the free travel tradition is gone for good, but the optimist in me is still hopeful that one New Year’s Eve in the future it will return, fingers crossed.
Luckily though, New Year’s Eve partiers and firework watchers who aren’t willing to splash the cash on a cab home will be able to get home safely no matter what ungodly time the celebrations end as most of the Tube will be running all night. Some bus routes will be running more often, there’ll be Sunday night service on all 24-hour and night routes, and a small number of day routes will be running overnight.
The Elizabeth Line will be running special all-night services between Hayes & Harlington and Shenfield, Reading and Abbey Wood, and Maidenhead and Abbey Wood but no overnight services will be running to and from Heathrow. The DLR will have special all-night service on all routes with trains arriving every 15 minutes.
For more guidance from TfL on travelling on New Year’s Eve, head here.