Boston’s Late-Night T Service Facing Funding Hurdles
The T’s late-night service doesn’t generate a lot of revenue, at least not compared to its costs, and officials think it’s unsustainable in its current format. That much has been made clear over the last couple of weeks, which saw MassDOT moved to extend the service through June 19, and a presentation of findings from the service’s first nine months to the agency’s board on Wednesday. (Yes, other things did happen at the meeting that saw a vote of confidence for MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott, who announced her resignation shortly thereafter anyway.)
While the late-night service registered more than 1.1 million rides between March 28 of last year and January 5, 2015, it’s been fairly costly. At a projected cost of $12.9 million through its one-year mark in late March, it’s under original projections of $16 million, but that’s against revenues of just over $2.1 million in fare revenues and sponsorships. The average cost to the T per ride is $7.68, compared to $2.74 per bus ride and 84 cents per subway ride outside of the late night hours.
A decision on what to do with the service will come in April from the MassDOT board. The presentation to the board putfour options on the table. They all address those financial troubles in one way or another.
One idea is to make adjustments in late-night route frequency and possibly eliminate lesser utilized routes to cut costs.
Another would be to charge more for late-night service. A table in the presentation suggests a $4 fare for late-night rides, with the assumption that doing so would lead to a decrease in ridership. Based on the T’s projections, this would lead to new revenues of just over $229,000—which wouldn’t go too far toward filling the gap. The report also suggests that a fare increase solution could include a “2-4 percent price increase’’ for daily, weekly, or monthly passes to cover for the added hours of service.
Or the service could rely on more sponsorship money. But as BostonMagazine reported last month, the T has seen limited returns there.
The other option, of course, is an obvious one: Shut the whole thing down.
“With scarce fiscal resources required to fund critical core services, the MBTA must make difficult decisions among competing priorities,’’ the presentation read.
This sentiment echoes much of the discussion about transit spending priorities, which has swirled around the T in its disastrous last few weeks. And it mirrors comments made last week by Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack. “I get it, but I have all these other things that I’m trying to do, that the T is trying to do, that require investment as well, and there are going to be hard choices,’’ Pollack said.
The T is holding a public comment period through March 11, which will include public meetings in March, before making a decision about the future of late-night service on April 15 (less than a week after Scott’s last day in office). Members of the Boston City Council are also looking to hold a hearing on the service, BostInno reports.
The MBTA has done no formal research to see the extent to which healthcare and restaurant workers were utilizing the service, the presentation showed. The odd hours in those industries had been oft-cited as a reason to launch the service last year. In two surveys from outside organizations, “entertainment’’ and “social/entertainment’’ were the top reasons the service was being used. Both of the surveys found similar percentage of riders (20 percent and 21 percent) who said they used it for work.
During late-night hours, ridership declined between midnight and 1:30 a.m. It then leveled off for half an hour before tapering off over the remaining operating hours. The presentation said this was evidence that Boston’s bar scene is a key driver of late-night usage. “This overall pattern is consistent with the closing of Boston-area establishments serving alcohol,’’ the presentation read.
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