MBTA could cut late-night weekend service

   ^{Now that it shuts down so early, it's no longer practical to use — it was nice while it lasted.}

The late night service is once again succeeding at the T's top goal for it: complete failure.

The T does nothing to promote the service, then scraps it when consumers don't magically appear. Would this work in the business world? Hell no. And the MBTA management can't have it both ways: reaping the good press when the service gets announced, then quietly sweeping it under the rug to try and balance the budget.

It's interesting to see how other cities/metros of roughly the same size handle late night service. I went to Montreal last summer, and half the buses had the all-night STM map plastered on the back. DC provides the model for the late night T service, and everyone there uses the service there because they know about it! Even Philly can run successful 24-hour bus and streetcar service to serve hospital and airport employees.

Last winter proved the T's "maintenance" excuse to be complete bullshit. How does NY run 24 hours and still maintain the system? Answer: they run single-track on key parts of each line overnight, as needed. For example, on alternating Mondays, the 7 runs on one track between Queens and Manhattan so that tunnel maintenance can be carried out. What really does happen on the T lines overnight?

On Boston's relatively short lines -- the Orange line takes 32 to minutes to run from end to end -- one trainset could ping-pong back and forth on one track and provide 24-hour service.

But the T pretends this is impossible. And the rank-and-file employees have been speaking about "rumors that they're trying to kill the Night Owl" ever since the new late night service started.

I don't think this will change until the T has a real budget and real leadership. It's a shame -- the T holds Boston back almost as much as it propels the city forward.

than operate late given >$13 ride operational cost. Just makes no sense to keep the system running during such low demand hours when Uber, Lyft, cabs, Hubway, and others offer so many transit options.

I'm shocked. Just shocked.

I NEVER said from the beginning that they would find excuses left and right to kill the service.

I NEVER imagined when they cut the end time back to just a smidge too early for any bar/club employees to take it home that they would then complain about no one riding it.

This just doesn't sound like the T at all!

Does the MBTA not understand how round-trips work?

If someone is taking a trip at 1:30am, it is most likely that they are returning home. That means their original trip was during regular service hours, say 8pm.

Cut the 1:30am trip and theyre not shifting to 12:00am - theyre shifting away from the T, period, because it will no longer serve their need. That means buying a car or simply not making that trip.

So no, you dont lose X trips, you lose 2x trips. Same with the fare. You lose both fares.

Thats why cutting the least used ride is always idiotic.

The last train of the day will ALWAYS be the emptiest (except for special events like New Years), because people do NOT want to be stranded.

If service ends at 2am, you plan for 1:45am just in case. If you cut service to 1:45am, you plan for 1:30am, etc etc.

Keep doing the "cut the lowest ridership trip" and suddenly you are operating from 7am to 9 am and from 4pm to 6pm.

And then you can still cut further because youre a goddamn public service so of course youre running at a loss.

Oh wait, thats the R plan. All according to plan then.

I'm fine with this, as long as the Pike will also be shut down late nights, at least west of 128. I mean, seriously, how many cars are on the Pike by Holyoke between 2 and 6 in the morning? If a car catches fire during those hours, the cost to rescue the driver must be astronomical. It makes no fiscal sense whatsoever to keep these roads open when barely anyone is using them late at night.

Right?

BTW, $14 million is less than the cost of 2 lives.

Youre telling me late night transit service didnt prevent any injuries or deaths by drunk drivers?

In the big boy world, we look at costs and benefits.

The analysis presented by the MBTA is all about costs. Zero benefits.

Hell, forget lives for a second - sales tax directly impacts the MBTA. How many dollars less will be spent resulting in less tax for the MBTA?

A substantial portion must be people enjoying bars and other nightlife. If you can do that, you have some disposable income and can afford to pay extra.

As one of these people, I would say it's reasonable to pay more if it's really necessary. What's that phrase: shut up and take my money?

The State never seems to get this right because they fail to fully understand how theird target audience interacts with the service and I believe this issue is even worse in regards to late night/early morning users.

We can all guess the groups that would benefit most from these services. Patrons of bars/nightclubs, college students and third shifters.

The college students will only use the service if it is incorporated into their monthly pass, otherwise why not just take an Uber. They also will not take something they do not know exists, so tremendous outreach on college campuses is essential.

The nightclub crowd is very similar but need a wider berth of locations as they are not as centrally located as the college crowd.

The third shifters need to know that the service will be there before they depend on it for their living. The MBTA makes a habit of playing games with these services so of course this crowd will not risk it if they can help it.

These are just basic things that popped into my head. I imagine sitting down and having real conversations with the core users would result in very informative data.