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Free TfL travel on New Year’s Eve is a bit of a London tradition: it's a once-a-year bacchanal where Londoners throw their Oyster cards to the wind and clomp up tube escalators in crazily impractical footwear, host impromptu platform parties, and coat the interior of tube trains with a sticky mixture of sweat, glitter and booze. Unfortunately, the pandemic has put paid to this year’s free-for-all. Not because it's unhygienic, but because the network is seriously strapped for cash after nearly two years of heavily reduced commuter numbers.
Still, it's not all doom and gloom. The Night Tube will be fully up and running on New Year’s Eve, which means you can get home safely whether your big evening out finishes after a sedate round of 'Auld Land Syne' at midnight, or with messy dancing til 5am.
It's worth remembering to check for planned closures before you make other festive social plans, though. Christmas Eve pints will be curtailed by tube services that stop running at Sunday times, bus services that finish by 11.30pm, and train services that finish at 10pm. There will be no TfL services at all on Christmas Day. And there are also planned works on the Piccadilly Line, Waterloo & City, Metropolitan, Jubilee, Central, and Bakerloo lines. Check TfL's website to avoid being caught out: a massive cab fare is the surprise Christmas present no one wants or needs.
Here’s everything you need to know about London’s new mask rules