Here’s a fun plot twist: the Docklands Light Railway (DLR)—those driverless trains that look like toys—often runs a better service than the Tube on Boxing Day. Because TfL can just press a button and make them go, they skip the whole “human operator needs a day off” drama.
Similarly, the London Overground is usually a solid choice, though it’s not immune to closures. Pro tip: avoid the Gospel Oak to Barking line unless you enjoy staring at abandoned rail sidings for 40 minutes.
But the real hero of Boxing Day is the Night Tube—wait, no. The Night Tube doesn’t run on Boxing Day, so if you’re planning to party until 4 AM and then take the Piccadilly line home, you’ll be sobbing into a night bus instead. The night bus is the true London experience, complete with someone singing Kylie Minogue a cappella.
Real-Life Boxing Day Horror Stories
A colleague once tried to take the Jubilee line from Stratford to Green Park on Boxing Day. She arrived to find the station locked, with a handwritten note taped to the gate: “Gone to see my mum, back tomorrow.” She had to walk through a Sainsbury’s car park in heeled boots.
Another friend (a fool, really) assumed the Tube would run like a normal weekday. He ended up waiting 45 minutes for a train on the Circle line, only to have it terminate at Edgware Road without warning. He now refers to Boxing Day as “the annual lesson in humility.”
London Tube Drivers To Strike On Boxing Day | UK News | Sky News
And don’t even start me on the Elizabeth line. It’s a shiny new darling of the network, but on Boxing Day it sometimes runs a service so sparse that you’d think the trains were made of gold. One year, it didn’t start until 10:00 AM. The bourgeoisie were furious.
