Two unrelated stories about late-night transit.

From The Guardian, 21 November 2013:

Tube trains will run throughout the night at weekends, London Underground has announced – but most tube ticket offices will go and 750 jobs will be lost.

From 2015 trains will run on Friday and Saturday nights on core parts of the tube network, as part of a package of measures for a "21st-century tube service", including direct payment by bank cards. But unions and Labour hit out at moves to close ticket offices and cut jobs.

...

The weekend "night tube" service will start on the Piccadilly, Victoria, Central and Jubilee lines, as well as key sections of the Northern line, from 2015. All stations will be staffed while services operate. The network, which should be expanded to other lines in future, is planned to dovetail with night buses for integrated services through the night.

A map of the proposed overnight service is here, showing the parts of the five lines which will run overnight.

From the Boston Globe, 3 December 2013:

Starting next spring, 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.

...

The new late service, which will include the Silver Line, will be a one-year experiment. If it proves popular, it could become permanent.

...

The 15 bus routes that will run until 3 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday starting next spring are: 1, 15, 22, 23, 28, 32, 39, 57, 66, 71, 73, 77, 111, 116, 117

This will be interesting.

From the Boston Globe:

Governor Deval Patrick’s administration filed suit in state court Monday to block the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah from opening a small casino on tribal land on the western edge of Martha’s Vineyard, the renowned resort island and presidential vacation spot.( more behind the cut )

The tribe insisted in November it has all necessary federal approvals to immediately open what US tribal gambling law calls a Class 2 facility, which could offer games such as high-stakes bingo, poker, and certain varieties of slot machines. To run a wider variety of games, the tribe must negotiate with Patrick on an agreement known as a compact. Compacts provide tribes certain benefits in exchange for giving the state a share of gambling revenue. The Aquinnah have formally asked to open negotiations.

From the New York Times:

An expert on gambling in Massachusetts said the move appeared to be an indirect attempt by the tribe to try to win a license for a casino on tribal lands on the mainland, the theory being that the threat of a casino on the Vineyard would be so awful that the governor would give in to one on the mainland.

A casino in the small town of Aquinnah, formerly known as Gay Head, which sits at the western edge of the island and is served only by a two-lane road, would not be easily accessible and would strain the local infrastructure. And local opposition could be fierce, with a casino being antithetical to the island’s noncommercial aesthetic.

“All the legal issues aside, just from a pure economic standpoint, it’s a terrible place for a casino,” said the expert, Clyde W. Barrow, a professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

“What this is really about,” he said, “is trying to get leverage to force the governor to negotiate” for a casino on the mainland.

(For bedfull_o_books, by request.)

Online Christmas Card from Thorntons.

This is cute, but it's a bit odd to have the Google Street View image from summertime overlaid with snowflakes.

The cards can only be sent if you "like" the Thorntons Facebook page.

(I have nothing to do with Thorntons chocolates. I don't even remember having tried any.)