I am getting conflicting info. on searches to find out if London operates public transportation (tubes, buses, rail) on Christmas day. In the past it seems that everything shut down for Christmas and Boxing Day (day after xmas). Does anyone know this year’s status for their transportation services? Any sites that explain schedules clearly? Thanks & cheers!
Transport for all the various forms of public transport in London. [url=http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/default.asp]The London Underground website should have further information too if you check nearer the time.
There is never any tube service on Christmas Day. Boxing Day is a Sunday service (ie. less frequent trains, finishing earlier at night, with a few stations closed). Buses and trains generally don’t run on Christmas Day either, and some don’t run on Boxing Day, while most are on a Sunday service. Basically it is difficult to travel around London on Christmas Day, so if you can avoid it, do.
Yep. Forget any public transport on the day itself. I’m planning on walking to my sister’s place in West Hampstead for Xmas lunch (not an ideal plan). You might find the odd taxi or minicab company open, but I wouldn’t bet on it. New Year is much more civilised now; I believe it’s free public transport on the day.
In past years the tube has been free only in the very early hours of the morning to allow partiers to get home and discourage drunk driving.
It may be that it’s free from earlier in the day; I suspect it’s to save LUL the trouble of dealing with crowds buying tickets and the risk of crushing at the barriers. I did read an announcement somewhere on one of the TfL sites but can’t find it now. Oops.
Thanks, everyone. My confusion was caused by this:
From: http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/simply/xmas.asp
So “yuletide” probably means the surrounding days, and not xmas. I also sent an email to the customer service.