Hey Boston, get ready for some late-night subway action.
The Globe is reporting that the MBTA will extend its schedule to 3 a.m. starting in 2014, giving a much-needed boost to Boston’s nightlife culture. The T currently shuts down around 1 a.m., but under this new plan, all MBTA stations and the 15 most popular bus routes will be extended an hour after the bars and nightclubs close.
Holy crap. Is this what it felt like when Prohibition ended?
Starting next year, the T will run all subway trains and the 15 most popular bus routes until 3 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Yes, the T is still cash-strapped, and the state budget remains tight, but Governor Deval Patrick has found about $20 million, along with pledges from corporate sponsors, to launch a one-year pilot program to begin in March or April.
College students and, more recently, techies in the growing innovation economy have complained about how Boston shuts down too early. T service ends at 1 a.m., and bars and restaurants close at 2 a.m. Those early hours also became an issue in the Boston mayoral race, as workers in the technology sector told the candidates the T’s schedule did not match their late-night work ethic.
It’s something Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh promised to work on when he got into office. Well, he can cross it off his to-do list because the governor got to it first.
“Is this cool or what?” said Patrick in a phone interview. “This is about how we make the system modern for the kind of economic growth we have been experiencing and will be experiencing. The folks who work in the innovation sector — they live differently.”