Circle Line Tube Cocktail Party 31-05-08 Final Night
Length: 1:18
Description: 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.
Author: kastcrunk
Source: YouTube
