#LondonIsOpen: Sadiq Khan wins the people’s vote

23rd August 2016

After three years of planning and negotiating, this weekend saw TFL turn London into a fully-fledged 24 hour city. Londoners no longer have to endure the dreaded night bus after a night out, or flag a cab to some far flung corner of zone 4 - the tube is now their oyster.

 

#NIghtTube map

 

Over 13k people took to Twitter & Instagram this weekend to voice their thoughts on the Central and Victoria lines opening their doors for 24 hours. We dug into the data to understand the key topics of conversations, the main hubs of Night Tube chatter, and whether this new 24 hour service is welcomed by the public (opposed to dreading it as a whole new public canvas for boozy sickness - did we mention the night bus already? Yes we did.)

Sadiq Khan wins the people's vote

 

On Friday evening, London's mayor Sadiq Khan jumped on the Victoria line to officially mark the 24 hour service open. After becoming the number one influencer on Twitter for #NightTube chatter, Sadiq then became a main topic of conversation over the weekend, gaining zero negative sentiment.

 

Sadiq Khan influencer graph

Interactive Network Graph: Sadiq Khan is the main influencer 

 

The Mayor of London's own tweet received the largest amount of reactions (either because he looks like he's just conquered Gotham City, or it's a true triumphant moment for TFL (Transport for London) and for London):

There is no other way to best describe London's admiration for Sadiq Khan than this image below, gaining almost 600 retweets.

 

 

But is Sadiq Khan's raised pedestal really deserved? This is the question being asked by many - as Khan becomes the face of #LondonIsOpen, Boris Johnson's foundations have been almost forgotten... possibly for some very good reasons, but that's another blog post.

Sadiq Khan may be the man of the moment, but that doesn't mean there aren't other high profile figures gaining Night Tube traction. Paul McCartney shared a tweet suggesting he's in support of London's latest offering:

 

 

Even brands are trying to get behind the hype. Innocent Drinks shared a collection of Night Tube images on Twitter over the weekend (although, we're still struggling to identify the relevance of this to the Innocent brand)

 

 

And lastly, Pizza Express' input...

 

The joke's on Southern Rail

 

The joke was on Southern Rail this weekend when Andy Watt became one of the dataset's main influencers on Twitter, following this jibe:

 

Southern Rail held major strikes a couple weeks ago which caused chaos for commuters - and in typical Twitter fashion, the blue birds have not forgiven them. Andy Watt's dig was viewed by over 100k people, gaining almost 900 reactions.

 

Mapping the Night Tube

 

The majority of conversation about the Night Tube was from the Londoners who used it themselves. Over 13k people shared their thoughts on Twitter and Instagram over the weekend - and by using Pulsar's heat map to geolocate the data we can identify where the main hubs of chatter happened.

The heat map below reveals not only the main areas of conversation, but a clear correlation with the stations that were open 24 hours:

 

nighttubeheatmap geolocated data

Geolocated heat and tube map overlay

 

By placing the heat map on top of a tube map you can see that areas of chatter largely represent the main stations opened for the entire weekend. Brixton, Angel, Bank, Victoria, Shepherds Bush and Ealing (all on the Victoria and Central lines) show a large volume of activity. However, Oxford Circus, the only place in London where both lines meet, was clearly the key hotspot in terms of social media conversation. 

 

The heat map gives us insight into a typical night out in London, suggesting that weekend party-goers revel in central London (Soho, Covent Garden and Bank), but end the night home in the outer suburbs; Shepherds Bush, Brixton, Ealing, Dalston and Angel.  

 

The Night Tube's opening weekend has been a huge success -  during its peak there were 420 negative posts compared to 12k with neutral or positive sentiment. Overall, the winner was not TFL but Sadiq Khan, and the loser was Southern Rail who's bad publicity stream continues.  

 

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