Suffolk students want later T service

If the T working on rails/trains during the off hours gives us the MBTA we have today, I'm terrified to see what it would look like with later service. Or even *gasp* dare I say, 24 hour service.

Regardless, the fact that it shuts down before last call is, to my knowledge, unique among major American cities and also ridiculous. The fact that there's a good reason why something doesn't work well does not change the fact that it doesn't work well.

Yet there's money to build a $90 million glass box at Government Center.

What if they just built an elevator, and used the rest of the money to run actual trains and buses?

operated at a profit last year. It's losses come from servicing debt it was forced to take on during the big dig

The same way the T pays for anything, including all the empty buses I see mid-day.

The DC Metro runs trains at 15 to 20 minutes intervals on a Saturday night. They close stations at midnight on weekdays (midnight!?!) I far prefer subways that run until a reasonably late hour all week and that don't (usually, nothing is perfect) require 20 minute waits on a weekend.

The DC subway is cleaner and quieter and the cars even have cushy seats. All these things are commendable. But for basic service it is not better than Boston and in some ways worse.

You are aware London Underground and Paris Metro both shut down overnight, in fact they close around the same time as the MBTA? London Underground actually starts up later in the AM than the MBTA on weekends. NYC is the only true 24/7 system, but even it gets quite slow overnight. Chicago has limited service on a few train lines and bus lines late or overnight.

But no, who actually says Boston is in the same category as NYC, London,Paris? I've never met anyone from here who makes this claim. But it's still a hell of a lot better and 'world class' than the places the majority of college students come from. It certainly isn't a typical 'college town'.

One of the students behind this is 20 years old. I don't think the school needs someone underage promoting later T service for partaking in "night life."

How about see a band play? Most last sets end after the T closes.

I'd actually be willing to pay a bit more farewise for a Night Owl. Something like this is desperately needed, particularly for the Blue Line. If you are stranded after the T closes, there is simply no viable way to get to East Boston without a vehicle, unless you can walk on water. If a drunken Suffolk student is stranded in Kenmore Square or in Allston after partaking in "nightlife", they can walk back to their dorm room downtown if need be, but you can't walk to East Boston.

For the students it may be all about drinking, but there are plenty of other reasons to have later service. What about the people who work at these bars? Even restaurant workers get shafted .. I used to work in the north end and even though the restaurant closed at 11, i would often just barely miss the last train at govt center at 1230/1 and have to either walk over 4 miles home or pay ~$30 for a cab. Security, hotel staff, nurses, valets, maintenance... There are thousands of workers in Boston who would use the train until 2 or 3 am.

The city should subsidize late night service. The t already operates at a loss anyway. Road tolls don't turn a profit either yet highways are open all night (the fact that ma has some of the worst roads and bridges in the country is a different story). If taxes were used to maintain a "world class" infrastructure then people wouldn't complain about paying them. Instead, people hand over almost 1/3 of their income with very few tangible benefits.