(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

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

U S A!
U S A!
U S A!
U S A!
U S A!

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

There is very rare service (once an hour or so) all night in Zagreb (buses keep being buses, trams keep being trams, but they run weird routes that merge multiple routes into one - 4 routes covering the majority of the day network of track.) There is no subway, day or not.

[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]

Do airport-only systems count? I believe the Skylink at DFW is 24 hours, and I bet there are a bunch of others.

[magustenebrarum.livejournal.com]

um, yeah, Boston loses out here, hardcore.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Am I completely on crack to think that London had partial 24-hour service once upon a time? I thought Sydney had had something as well, but hell if I can figure it out from their web site.

I'm in completely disagreement with the MBTA apologists above. Boston doesn't have 24-hour subway service because the people who run the system don't want it. I started liking Boston a lot better when I stopped trying to compare it with large cities and started appreciating it for what it is.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

worldwide? i assumed that some european cities had 24/7 subway systems.

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

"All-night transit service is a mark of civilization. Sorry, Boston."

ROFLMAO!

Really, why go thru so much trouble mentioning all-night operation? I'd say a rational, decent, easy to use turn-style and vending is a mark of civilization, and Boston could start fixing that, then, when profits start happening because people will *want* to use it instead of *having* to use it, all-night operation might come.

On a more serious note, I've heard it before that NYC subway system had track maintenance while the trains were *running* -- they'd slow the trains to say, once every 10 minutes, then the workers had about nine minutes to do part of it, wait for the train to pass thru, continue until they were done. Given that we have *no* 24h service, they could start with a train every 20 minutes or 15 minutes for example, which is better than nothing, and do maintenance in between. If we're talking about something so bad that they need to stop the track for hours, well then, bus people, it's not that different from when something bad happens during the day and has to be dealt with. It's just part of being a grown up, I suppose. ;-)