(no subject)

[randomness]

So, according to Wikipedia, that unimpeachable source, the only subway systems in the world that operate 24 hours, 7 days a week are the New York City Subway, PATH, the Red and Blue lines of the Chicago L, and PATCO between Philadelphia and its New Jersey suburbs.

Anyone know of any others? Night bus networks, while nice, don't count.

(I thought of this after a conversation with bloodstones about Chicago's Blue Line, in which she said, "All-night transit service is a mark of civilization. Sorry, Boston.")

Comments

[foldedfish.livejournal.com]

All-night subways are indeed a great thing. Unfortunately for Boston, its subway was first in the nation, so others got to learn from its mistakes -- namely, only having one track in each direction. That means that you can't have 24-hour train service, not unless your tracks are made of fairy dust and never need maintenance.

(Running longer hours also means higher costs, and the MBTA is not exactly flush with cash right now. Try asking most commuters if they'd be willing to have the cost of a ride go up 40% so that the college kids could take the train home from the clubs at 4 am.)

[totient]

Almost no systems have extra tracks. One that does, or will shortly when it opens, is line 9 in Seoul; it'll be interesting to see if that one (which goes to their airport) runs 24 hours.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I was about to say this, but you said it better.

[magustenebrarum.livejournal.com]

Hell yes NYC!

[foldedfish.livejournal.com]

Woo! Second in the nation to have a subway! Woo!

ps. yankees suck

[magustenebrarum.livejournal.com]

Jeff, I suspect, is referring to having, in general, four track wide subways. Yes, the NYC system developed from competing entities, however those systems evolved into the different lines, for instance many people still call the 4-5 the IRT. And while these did parallel each other, they weren't two feet apart from one another.

The four track wide system allows for things like express trains. Which is why, I suspect, it was done that way. Not because two different companies wanted to run trains in the exact same space.

So yes, they did it to be clever.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Even in places that don't have 24-hour service, running alternating directions on one track while the other gets worked on is SOP for off-hours maintenance. (The MBTA does this as well in some places.) No fairy dust required!

I've read in a few places that Boston did actually run 24-hour trains for a while in the 40's, but I have no good citation for it.

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Chicago L runs 24-hours on parts of the system by running alternating directions on one-track for maintenance. Of course, the L seems to have a LOT of maintenance on weekends, which would often get frustrating, but