WMATA and MBTA late-night closures

[randomness]

Because our cities think bar and restaurant workers should take ride-sharing services, Washington DC joins Boston in ending late-night weekend service.

Unlike other nearby cities whose transit authorities provide overnight bus services when their rail transit stops, there are no replacement buses for this closure.

(Don't even talk to me about New York. They're clearly out of our league.)

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, late-night services attract sufficiently few riders that they take an unusually high subsidy per-rider. The question seems to be where to get that money.

I recall seeing a proposal to increase the MBTA's subsidy from the state government. The legislature allocated an increment to the gas tax to pay for the MBTA. It was repealed on a referendum. Only recently did I realize that the tax was a really bad idea: gas taxes fall heaviest on rural and exurban people who are out of range of the MBTA and lightest on urben and near-suburban people who use the MBTA. The best way to pay for the MBTA is to increase its levy on the cities and towns within its territory -- which I notice was not the approach the legislature took.