Night Tube party arranged on Facebook in the name of 24-hour fun

The service kicks off on the Central and Victoria lines on 19 August

Scenes at the 2008 Tube drinking party (Getty)

London will finally get to stay out past midnight without having to endure the horrors of the night bus from Friday, when the London Underground goes 24-hour at weekends.

Around 200,000 people are expected to use the extended service each weekend, and during trial runs staff have been testing their vomit clean-up protocols by flinging vegetable soup around the carriages.

Back in 2008, a ton of people boarded the Tube to mark the last night you could take alcohol of it, and, in a similar move, the inaugural Night Tube is to get a little party on its own.

A ‘Celebrate the Arrival of the Night Tube to London!’ event has been set up on Facebook, and 3,000 people have already shown interest.

Larger version of map here

There doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan for the celebration, nor a route, but revellers will be confined to the Central and Victoria lines as they are the only two running on launch night (others to follow in autumn).

“I’m super confident,” Mark Wild, who is spearheading the Night Tube, said of the service. “It’s been a long time in the planning. This is going to open the network for doctors and nurses, people in the hospitality industry and so on. People are getting better travel options.

“We estimate a large percentage of people travelling will be doing so for their own economic purposes. It’s not all revellers - it’s a real mixed bag.”