Chaotic alcohol-fuelled tube party causes chaos

by Dave Keating | June 2, 2008 at 12:31 am

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Yesterday, June 1st, marked the first day of new London mayor Boris Johnson's ban on consuming alcohol on public transport in London. In response various parties had been organized on Facebook. However the festivities Saturday night quickly turned chaotic, with assaults on tube staff, vandalism, vomiting, and numerous arrests.

It ended up being sheer coincidence which tube parties that had been organized on facebook got the most respondants. One of the organizers, Alexandre Graham, a 26 year-old city banker, says he now fears for his job. Graham had created a group for having a party on the tube not knowing whether to expect 12 people or 60. In the end, almost 10,000 people signed up.

The railworkers' union on Sunday blasted Mayor Johnson for hastily implementing the alcohol ban with no plan for enforcement, and demanded that he publicly apologize to transit workers for indirectly causing the chaos on saturday night.

The organiser behind the Tube drinking ban protest is a London banker, it was revealed today.

Alexandre Graham, 26, who works for the Royal Bank of Scotland, set up the Saturday night 'Circle line party — last day of drinking on the Tube' which ended in violent clashes and 17 arrests.

Mr Graham, of Fulham who now fears for his job, said he did it because a female friend who worked in a senior position for former mayor Ken Livingstone lost her job following Boris Johnson’s election victory.

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Organiser Alexandre Graham, 26, fears he may lose his City banker job after Saturday's chaos

Chaos: Party revellers enjoy the atmosphere on the London Underground

It was one of several parties which spiralled out of control after being organised through the Facebook website.

Thousands swamped the Circle line. Drunken mobs fought with Tube staff and police and vandalised train carriages.

Before long many were fighting or vomiting. Seven Tube staff and two police officers were assaulted, six Underground stations had to be closed and several trains were taken out of service after party-goers began smashing them up. There were 17 arrests.

'The point of it [the party] was just to make fun of how ridiculous the ban is,' Mr Graham told the Daily Nail's sister paper The Evening Standard.

The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, banned alcohol on the Tube from yesterday to make travelling safer and less unpleasant. This prompted several Facebook groups to issue instructions for a party.