Night Tube service to begin on August 19th

The night tube will start on 19th August, almost a year later than expected Credit: PA

London’s long-delayed 24 hour ‘Night Tube’ will finally start in August - almost a year late, thanks to a bitter dispute with the rail unions.

The first all-night trains will run on the Central and Victoria Lines on Friday August 19th but Piccadilly, Jubilee and Northern Line services will be delayed until the Autumn.

The long-running row over pay and rosters torpedoed Boris Johnson’s planned September 2015 launch coinciding with the Rugby World Cup.

The outgoing Tory mayor hoped to announce a revised start date before he left office earlier this month but new Labour mayor Sadiq Khan was abled to claim the trophy.

Credit: PA

City Hall claims 24-hour services on Fridays and Saturdays will give London’s economy a £360m shot in the arm.

London Underground was forced to hire 200 part-time drivers after the unions rejected bonus payments for existing staff.

Delays in training the new drivers are thought to be behind the ‘staggered’ launch of the new service.

The biggest rail Union, the RMT, attempted to pour cold water on Mr Khan's announcement claiming there were significant 'unresolved issues'.