Late night T service take 2

Announcements are now playing in stations about late night service. The guy sounds extremely excited in the announcement. Good hype haha!
 
Random idea: put up posters in late night bars and restaurants advertising the program and giving info on the last bus/train to pass nearby that particular establishment, when and where it stops.

I know that many people have smartphones but maybe some old fashioned signs could ease a lot of confusion at closing hour.
 
Muckrock requested the late-night feasibility study from the T, only to be told that there was none. The T did note an estimated $20M additional cost and the need to hire 109 new employees. See: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/massachusetts-1/mbta-late-night-feasibility-study-10779/

I wonder if the new hires were hired under different labor rules specifically for nighttime service, so that they don't have to be paid the double overtime as on the Night Owl.

Muckrock was given a copy of the Night Owl bus post-mortem report: https://muckrock.s3.amazonaws.com/foia_files/Night_Owl_Briefing_2009.doc

Some interesting stuff, including a discussion of labor rules, expenses, a map of the system, and a report on ridership by route.

I wasn't living here at the time so this is the first time I've seen the map of the Night Owl system. It's striking that some of the buses partially follow old transit alignments - the night version of the E train goes all the way to Forest Hills, and the night version of the Orange Line takes an eastward excursion over to Dudley.

There's also a brief mention of a future alternative that sounds pretty close to what we're getting: the regular system simply running a few hours later on Fridays and Saturdays.
 
Great stuff. I need to look into this site some more. Looks like Shawn is doing some interesting work.

Yes, I'm not surprised that the night bus routes vary significantly from the rail routes. One problem with bustitution is that many of the rail segments in Boston do not follow the street network. It is significantly easier to follow the route of the old elevated because that actually ran above a street its whole length.

Seeing that this $20M cost is going towards hiring 109 new employees, I'm even more convinced that the MBTA is using this "pilot" as some kind of gap filler to hire employees for regular daytime service as well.

Regarding the labor rules, that seems to imply to me that running an everyday night bus network would be more cost effective than a weekend-only service, if designed correctly.

I'll also note that a "double fare" in 2001 is significantly different from a "double fare" after July 2014, if they do reconsider that option...
 
A reminder of the schedule:

Approx last trains FROM*:

Red Line - Braintree: 1:52 AM
Red Line - Ashmont: w2:07 AM
Red Line - Alewife (Braintree): w2:10 AM
Red Line - Alewife (Ashmont): w2:15 AM

Blue Line - Wonderland: 2:05 AM
Blue Line - Orient Heights: 2:10 AM
Blue Line - Bowdoin: w2:30 AM

Orange Line - Oak Grove: w2:10 AM
Orange Line - Forest Hills: w2:10 AM

Green Line - Boston College: 1:48 AM
Green Line - Cleveland Circle: 1:40 AM
Green Line - Riverside: 1:43 AM
Green Line - Heath Street/VA Medical Center: w2:11 AM
Green Line - Park St (B): w2:28 AM
Green Line - North Station (C): w2:25 AM
Green Line - Park St (D): w2:30 AM
Green Line - Lechmere (E): w2:15 AM

SL1 - Logan Airport: 2:03 AM
SL1 - South Station: w2:15 AM
SL2/SL3: N/A
SL4 - Dudley Square: 2:20 AM
SL4 - South Station: 2:05 AM
SL5 - Dudley Square: 2:05 AM
SL5 - DTX: w2:30AM

* This means the train leaves the station at the specified time toward the final destination - ie. "Park St (B)" is the last B train to Boston College

w Last trips will wait for connecting services to arrive
 
Yeah, and buses are similar. But the inbound trips from outlying areas will leave earlier -- some before 2 am. I remember that the 39 had 1:55am departure from Forest Hills, so that it could turn around at Back Bay around 2:30am.
 
Matthew said:
Random idea: put up posters in late night bars and restaurants advertising the program and giving info on the last bus/train to pass nearby that particular establishment, when and where it stops.

I know that many people have smartphones but maybe some old fashioned signs could ease a lot of confusion at closing hour.
Click to expand...

That would be a good, smart move by the MBTA and also the bar owners. Having a clear, easy to read sign would be a lot easier than someone who may be buzzed/drunk fumbled through their phone to navigate the MBTA's website.
 
Odd that the Silver Line is going to the Airport until 2am. Are there even planes landing/taking off much after 12? Maybe it should just stick to the Seaport District...
 
mass88 said:
That would be a good, smart move by the MBTA and also the bar owners. Having a clear, easy to read sign would be a lot easier than someone who may be buzzed/drunk fumbled through their phone to navigate the MBTA's website.
Click to expand...

Fiddling with a proof of concept at this URL. Right now it displays the closest, latest stop times within a quarter-mile or so. I'll tinker with typesetting and parameters another day. Time to go out and have fun.
 
Tombstoner said:
Odd that the Silver Line is going to the Airport until 2am. Are there even planes landing/taking off much after 12? Maybe it should just stick to the Seaport District...
Click to expand...


Yes... usually delayed, but some are scheduled to land after midnight. Unfortunately, those happen weekday nights too.
 
There is no feasibility study because late-night service was NOT a creation of the MBTA. It was a creation of politics, on short notice. That's why this night network is exactly the key bus network - it was easiest.
 
Holy crap that was crowded. Rode the 2nd to last "B" out of Park Street and we left people behind at every underground station...
 
Matthew said:
Holy crap that was crowded. Rode the 2nd to last "B" out of Park Street and we left people behind at every underground station...
Click to expand...

Nice! I caught an outbound "D" from Kenmore at 12:30 and it was a bit less crowded than usual. Glad to see that was because people were staying out later.
 
Scipio said:
Muckrock requested the late-night feasibility study from the T, only to be told that there was none. The T did note an estimated $20M additional cost and the need to hire 109 new employees. See: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/massachusetts-1/mbta-late-night-feasibility-study-10779/

I wonder if the new hires were hired under different labor rules specifically for nighttime service, so that they don't have to be paid the double overtime as on the Night Owl.

Muckrock was given a copy of the Night Owl bus post-mortem report: https://muckrock.s3.amazonaws.com/foia_files/Night_Owl_Briefing_2009.doc

Some interesting stuff, including a discussion of labor rules, expenses, a map of the system, and a report on ridership by route.

I wasn't living here at the time so this is the first time I've seen the map of the Night Owl system. It's striking that some of the buses partially follow old transit alignments - the night version of the E train goes all the way to Forest Hills, and the night version of the Orange Line takes an eastward excursion over to Dudley.

There's also a brief mention of a future alternative that sounds pretty close to what we're getting: the regular system simply running a few hours later on Fridays and Saturdays.
Click to expand...

The late night differential for hours worked after 2 AM remains, the employees working the new late night work get paid 7.5 hours for 6.5 hours of work for most of the pieces that end after 2 AM. Most of them have runs that start at 7:30 PM, a one-hour break after the first hour of the assignment, and then second-half work that ends back at the garage or carhouse at 3:10-3:40 AM depending on the route

They were however able to formally change the five-day assignment rule for late night runs with the union. In 2001 the union informally allowed Friday-only late night assignments to be scheduled even though the contract technically required that they be 5-day assignments. The contract now allows a special Friday-only schedule.

The new hires increase the pool of available employees and total labor hours available, but the new people will not directly be running late night assignments. Per union agreements, new hires come on as part-time employees and only work rush-hours and some holidays. The hiring of the new part-timers frees up existing part-timers to be promoted to full-timers and increase the supply of workers required to meet the expanded schedules. Besides accounting for the actual hours of new late night service, the MBTA schedule makers also have to work around federal hours-of-service requirements for commercial drivers with commercial driver licences. The total number of hours a person can work during a week (including overtime) is limited and it is mandatory that each new assignment period begin with a 10-hour off-duty period. That limited how much new service the MBTA could have offered with the existing work-force working overtime.
 
Tombstoner said:
Odd that the Silver Line is going to the Airport until 2am. Are there even planes landing/taking off much after 12? Maybe it should just stick to the Seaport District...
Click to expand...

There might not be planes landing, but there are people working at the airport at all hours.
 
Interestingly, the 28 now has 24 hour service on Saturdays and Sundays, though only in the inbound direction. The last bus departs Mattapan at 2:45 AM and the first bus departs at 3:20. That's only a 35 minute gap in service.
 
Tombstoner said:
Odd that the Silver Line is going to the Airport until 2am. Are there even planes landing/taking off much after 12? Maybe it should just stick to the Seaport District...
Click to expand...

Many flights are scheduled to land from 10-12, and if those get delayed, they can easily land after the 12:30. I've been stuck taking a cab from Logan many times because of delayed flights.
 
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