archBOSTON ARCHIVE

[TheBostonian]

http://www.wmata.com/riding/riding_metro.cfm

Closes*:
midnight Sunday-Thursday, 3 a.m. Friday-Saturday nights
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I didn't know this. If the MBTA is leaving nights for maintenance, must it be 7 nights a week? How about 5? How about midnight to 3AM service on weekends with an infrequent, yet fixed schedule with shorter trains?[/i]

[quadratdackel]

Ahh, the Night Owl issue. From the sound of things, it looks like the only thing that will bring that back is widespread community pressure and/or a change of MBTA leadership, because aparently the current cast doesn't want it. It was only losing $1-3 million per year? Sounds like a great deal to me for drastically improved nightlife and less drunk driving. Heck, I bet the area colleges would cough up the cash:

(250K students)x($10 per year per student) = $2.5mil/year = Night Owl once again

Student gov's would approve that in a heartbeat. And since the MBTA gave money as the reason for folding the service, not "we just don't want to do it", they have no excuse not to bring it back with this subsidy. Hmmm... I'm a student... I'm going to ask my government and report back. Maybe not on a Friday night though. Come to think of it, what am I still doing at my computer?...

[garbribre]

^Hmmm fuzzy math there, but the T would understand that, eh?

I agree with the need for night-owl service, even if it's only on limited, scheduled, once-an-hour increments. For instance, most European cities (small and large) have it. Usually it's only bus service, too, whether a subway/undergound exists in that locale or not, much like Boston's (or the Bay Area's). It's saved my ass (and wallet) many times. I still use it from SF to Oakland on occasion (but only when desperate, cause the wait can suck if you are off the scheduled times). BTW--BART shuts down for under four hours each night for 'maintenance', but I suspect BART is easier to maintain than the aged T.

Probably the institutions of higher education have some sort of hidden agenda. For instance, if the T operated longer hours on the weekends, especially to accommodate the late-night, partying students, then how could they be kept concentrated in the dorms at those late, hazardous hours. No, seriously. Not just playing devils advocate here. This has been a major concern even when I was in college decades (gulp!) ago. Though, the lack of public transport never stopped me. The stories I could tell....*sigh*....Reminiscing....Snap out of it!

And who cares if you are home on a Friday (or Saturday) night. Take it from this ex-Manhattanite--the truly cool people go out on Sunday and Monday nights.

[TheBostonian]

Let me add that I would be perfectly happy with the MBTA charging $3 or $4 for late night subway service.

[Ron Newman]

Something that will be easier to do once they convert entirely to the new fare card system.

Amsterdam's night bus system charges substantially higher fares than their regular bus and tram system.

[dudeursistershot]

The problem here is the T unions. The Night Owl would be a MONEY MAKER if not for the T unions and their idiotic work rules that force the T to pay ridiculous amounts of money for "overtime" if drivers work past a certain time. Think about it: how much would it cost to run a few bus lines in half-hour increments? You'd have to pay for the fuel and the driver. Those costs could almost certainly be made up by, say, $3 fares, if the bus drivers were paid what they deserve (a lot less)

[quadratdackel]