The night tube is costing £1.5m a month even though it's not running

You've got to hand it to Boris, he really knows what he's doing with this whole 'running London' thing.

With the full taxpayer-crippling horror of West Ham's deal to take on the Olympic Stadium due to be released soon, it's now been revealed that Boris' much-vaunted Night Tube is already costing £1.5m a month to run. Which would be fine - except it's obviously not running.

TfL has confirmed that 500 extra members of staff are on its payroll who were specifically brought in for the Night Tube since September, the time when the service was due to begin. They are, at least, not sitting around twiddling their thumbs: they've been deployed across the existing network for now, but it still seems a tremendous waste of money.

The rollout of the 24-hour service has been delayed due to a series of disagreements between transport unions and TfL, leading to a variety of strikes - and still no resolution. The original start date of 12 September has already been pushed back to next year, with Johnson setting a rather defeatist tone when he recently spoke about it.

The Mayor of London said:  "I've got to tell you this is something that the city of London has done without for 150 years. There's a very good deal on the table. I just hope that members of the Tube unions will get a chance to look at it. I want you to know that this is something I think we should have but - I hope my attitude is clear - it is not something that I regard as absolutely critical."

[via Gizmodo]

(Image: Rex)