Circle Line Tube Cocktail Party 31-05-08 Final Night

London Revelers Plan Last Cocktail Party Before Tube Booze Ban

By Brian Lysaght

May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Revelers are planning a final cocktail party on the London Underground tomorrow evening before an alcohol ban takes effect on June 1.

Mayor Boris Johnson announced the ban on May 7, six days after his election, fulfilling a campaign pledge. The new rule will bar alcohol consumption on city buses and trains and is aimed at making traveling safer and more pleasant, Johnson said.

``The Final Circle Line Party'' will take place in the rear cars of the 9 p.m. Circle Line train leaving from the clockwise platform at Liverpool Street station. Revelers should bring their own cocktails, said James Darling, 20, a Web site designer helping to organize the event, in an interview yesterday. Similar parties are happening on other lines.

``It's merely an opportunity to do one last time what we cannot do after June 1,'' Darling said in a telephone interview, adding that he's ``absolutely not'' taking a stand on whether the rule is a good or bad idea. Jackets are recommended for the gentlemen and dresses for the ladies, he said.

Darling said he is nervous because word of the event has spread across Web sites, and ``it's gotten bigger than anyone imagined.'' There were 9,134 confirmed guests as of today on two Facebook Web sites describing the bash.

``I want people to come and drink responsibly,'' he said.

Johnson, a Conservative member of Parliament who defeated two-term Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone in a May 1 election, made improving safety on the city's streets, buses and trains a priority in the campaign.

`Monitoring Behavior'

The British Transport Police will have extra officers deployed on the Tube, as the railway is known, tomorrow evening to observe the planned events.

``The officers will be monitoring the behavior of people and groups and will intervene in any instances of public order offenses,'' said Superintendent Ellie Bird, in an e-mailed statement.

When the new rules take effect, police will warn drinkers rather than issue tickets, she said.

The London Underground has no plan to try to stop the parties and advised the drinkers to act responsibly and consider their fellow passengers, said a spokesman for Transport for London, the city agency that operates the railway.

Crime declined last year on the Tube, according to police figures released on May 28. Total incidents fell by 11 percent from a year earlier to 16,445. Public order incidents such as drunkenness dropped by 3.4 percent to 1,981.

The railway carried 1 billion passengers last year for the first time.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Circle
• Line
• Tube
• Cocktail
• Party
• Final
• Night

[ZILLA2010]

Bloomin' 'ell, I ain't never seen nuffink like it in all me bleedin' life. Reminds me of the war, it does.

[gajeebant]

Bloody Yobbos! Being a right pain in the arse to ordinary people. Don't they realise there causing a great deal of inconvenience to normal people who actually need to use the tube. But I suppose these chavs only care about themselves. Fucking muppets, the lot of them.

[Whatever1918rev]

Why are internet message boards so dominated by right wing reactionaries with appalling spelling and grammar? You are all so full of HATE AND CAPITAL LETTERS because some people had some fun. I used to like to have an occasional beer on the tube, or the bus, or the overground - after a difficult day at work for example, or early in a summer evening - and now I can't because an unrepresentative group of posh people (which now includes the mayor) felt it lowered the tone. You are strange loners.

[Tzimnewman3]

Its amazing that there was already a law against drinking alcohol in public including the Underground. There was and still is a law against being drunk on the Underground to meaning the staff can use force to prevent you entering drunk.

Boris picked on an easy target and didn't use his mind to think how people would react. I even assumed it was legal until the given date and also had drinks since its a new law. Thank Boris :-)

[001jellybee]

fat ass idiots they did that in bristol on the bus

[SiMoNeXI]

it's fantastic

[adelaxxx]

completely moronic

[AndrewTiffin]

And Boris is pure evil for doing all this.

[wembleyhed]

fuck off!

[omgu8mynewt]

i went to th northern line around camden, some serious drinking taking part on the platforms

[omgu8mynewt]

you mean sense? what an idiot...