MBTA Bolsters Early Morning Bus Service
The transit agency is starting some crowded routes at an earlier hour and adding additional runs to others.
![The route 65 bus at Kenmore state](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/mbta-bus-1.jpg)
Photo by Olga Khvan
The early bird gets the worm, and soon, the bus.
Next week, the MBTA will kick off enhanced early morning service on 10 high-demand routes. Some busses will start running as early as 3:20 a.m., while additional rides will bolster the pre-dawn schedules of other routes. Buses including the 65 between Brighton and Kenmore; the 70 between Waltham and Cambridge; and the 109 between Malden and Charlestown will be affected by the changes, among others.
The added service, which will be tested for a year, aims to ease the pressure on some of the MBTA’s busiest busses, particularly ahead of the morning commute. T general manager Luis Ramirez told the Boston Globe that starting rides earlier “means we’ll have more capacity freed up for people who leave later. … The idea is to provide a consistent service throughout the rush hour.” The logic goes that giving people the chance to start their day earlier will alleviate the all-too-familiar pains of having to elbow your way onto a bus during peak commuting times.
The early-morning pilot program was approved last summer and fills part of the void left by the MBTA’s absence of late-night weekend bus and subway service. In 2016, the agency pulled the plug on overnight rides due to low ridership and cost concerns, and it has since struggled to find a solution to the service gap. The MBTA reopened the prospect of late-night commuting in January and requested ideas from vendors to shuttle passengers on a route from Mattapan through downtown, East Boston, Chelsea, and Revere. But in March, the agency announced its call for help had not been answered; no companies submitted proposals.