More on Night Tube, the Moring Star initially said that Boris would make his grand announcement today at Ashford depot which I found rather odd as that is where Southeastern keep their Javelin trains, nothing to do with TfL, and it was suggested that this was an attempt by Boris to steal a bit of the limelight ahead of George Osborne’s budget on Wednesday.  Later the Evening Standard added actual dates, 5 August and 23 September, also from an unnamed ASLEF source, along with the news that the announcement will be made some time after the budget at Ashfield House, LU’s training centre next to West Kensington station (that big tower block behind the east end of the Westbound platform that looks like Gestapo HQ).

While there he will meet some of the new TOps which Boris and his media circus no doubt imagines will be a splendid photo opportunity but I’m not so sure it will be quite as expected.  Rather than former members of the public who’ve signed up to be train drivers I suspect that this batch of trainees will mostly be made up of station staff who’ve been squeezed out by Fit for the Future and as RMT or TSSA members would have been on strike last summer.  Just what sort of reception Boris will get from people he has taken every opportunity to insult I’m not sure but if the visit does go ahead it could be quite amusing (for everyone except Boris),