Two lines of London’s Underground will serve the after-midnight crowd on weekends

If you’ve had a wee bit much to drink and want to take the Tube to your London home, you were out of luck after midnight.

Until Friday.

The London Underground started running all-night rides on two lines, the Victoria and Central, coming into line with mass-transit practices in New York and Paris and other party-down towns.

Those out for a late night on Fridays and Saturdays won’t have to face the frantic rush for the last train nor the chance of a colorful or cramped journey home. That means whether you’re in Brixton or Knightsbridge, Covent Garden or Piccadilly Circus, a trip home is only a short walk away.

The special service is to spread to the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines this fall. The British Transport Police has said around 100 officers will be on patrol.

London’s underground, founded in 1863, is perhaps the most famous subway system in the world. It has been in such movies as “An American Werewolf in London” and the James Bond movies “Skyfall” and “Die Another Day.”

But its most important role — besides getting people to and from wherever they are going — may have been serving as shelters during the German air raids of London during World War II. About 40,000 Londoners were killed and a million homes were destroyed during the bombings.

The system has 270 stations and 11 lines. A new line called the Elizabeth Line, named for the queen, is expected to come into service in 2018. It will run from “Reading and Heathrow in the west across to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east,” according to Transport for London.

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