Late-Night MBTA Service By the Numbers
Boston won’t be getting extended bar hours anytime soon, but if the numbers clocked for the MBTA’s late-night bus and train services maintain momentum, riders could be boarding the vehicles beyond the intended one-year pilot program.
On Tuesday, MBTA officials announced that as of this month more than 400,000 riders have used the new late-night service, choosing to take buses and trains from destination points all around the city when the bars and clubs let out and work shifts come to an end.
The service, which keeps train lines and 15 select bus routes running until 3 a.m., was first introduced back in March. By April, transit officials were already pleased with the program’s progress, citing a steady increase in ridership in a time when many of the students that make up a portion of the city’s population during the school year were home for the summer.
Although the MBTA maintains that they didn’t make any predictions about what the ridership count would look like, numbers have remained relatively steady from week-to-week.
The following is a breakdown of each line for the first 18 weekends—barring above ground Green Line trolley trips, bus trips, and Silver Line trips for the most recent weekend of the offered service—which ultimately tipped the numbers past the 400,000 mark:
Core Stations
(stations served by more than one subway line)
107,088
Red Line trips
69,676
Orange Line trips
41,626
photo by meredith foley
Green Line subway trips
70,830
Green Line above ground trips*
18,279
photo By Olga Khvan
Blue Line trips
20,477
Photo by Alex Lau
Silver Line trips*
5,158
Bus trips*
58,711
*Does not include weekend of Aug. 2.
