Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
MBTA announces extended service hours on weekends
The MBTA also announced extended bus services on certain lines every day.
Boston is one hour closer to becoming a city that never sleeps. The MBTA announced extended service on bus routes and extended hours on Fridays and Saturdays across certain modes of transportation.
Gov. Maura Healey and MBTA General Manager Phil Eng announced these fall service changes, which will take effect on Aug. 24, during a press conference Tuesday.
“The whole goal is to make transit more available to people,” Healey said. “You’re going to get a public transit system that you deserve that is an option for you, that works for you.”
Every day, bus routes 23, 28, 57, 111, and 116 will extend service for one hour. Daily headways will be shortened by 30 seconds on heavy rail trains and there will be better service across the Red, Orange, and Blue lines, Eng said.
Advertisement:
The commuter rail and the Green Line “continue to do extremely well,” he said.
On Fridays and Saturdays, service will be extended one hour on all subway lines with trains arriving every 30 minutes on the Ashmont/Braintree branch of the Red Line and every 15 minutes on every other line. Bus service on the 1, 22, 39, 66, 110 routes, and Silver Line 1, 3, and 5 routes will also extend with service every 30 minutes.
Eng, who was wearing a new T-themed tie, said, “To encourage it and really let people experience it, starting Sept. 5, Friday and Saturday for five weekends, we will be making the MBTA free across every mode from 9 p.m, through the end of service.”
Advertisement:
Free night service will be offered on Sept. 5-6, 12-13, 19-20, 26-27, and Oct. 3-4.
“The extended service is just another key component to giving people who need and wanted to use our system but were unable to before can now choose to use it,” Eng said. “Not only are we supporting people that want to go out and enjoy everything Massachusetts has to offer…but we are allowing the retail workers, restaurant workers, the people that need to be out later than our typical previously provided for. Now, we can do that on a basis where they can choose transit in an affordable way.”
Ferry service on the Lynn, Winthrop, and Quincy lines will remain the same. The Charlestown, East Boston, and Hingham-Hull ferries will run one to two hours later than current schedules through September.
- The East Boston and Charlestown ferries will have added ferries to extend service to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays with the last trips to Long Wharf departing at 9:30 p.m. and the last trips departing from Long Wharf at 9:45 p.m.
- The Hingham/Hull ferry service will also add a roundtrip with the ferry departing Hingham to Long Wharf at 10:15 p.m. and from Long Wharf to Hull and Hingham at 11 p.m.
MBTA Transit Police will extend their work alongside the extended service hours, Eng said.
“Giving people options adds another level of safety as well” by giving people the option to get off the roads, Eng added.
Extended ferry service will run on Hingham/Hull (Fridays), East Boston (Fridays/Saturdays) & Charlestown (Fridays/Saturdays) on Aug. 29 – Sept. 27.
— MBTA (@MBTA) August 12, 2025
Service on all modes will be free on Fridays & Saturdays, 9pm through end of service on Sept. 5-6, 12-13, 19-20, 26-27, & Oct. 3-4. pic.twitter.com/bQ46PtHqhG
“With free weekend service in September, it’s a great way to attract and welcome more people back to transit,” said Caitlin Allen-Connelly, executive director of TransitMatters, in a press release. “This is a clear win for riders, workers, the community, and our local economy.”
Advertisement:
The fall service updates will cost the MBTA approximately $2 million, which is included in its operating costs, Eng said at the press conference.
“Our work is never done,” Healey added. “We are going to make the very best use of every single one of those $8 billion for public transit,” including continued improvement work on waterways, roads, and fixing potholes, to name a few.
The extended service “provides more opportunities for us to look at improving service even beyond this,” said Eng. “Maybe one day it will be the city that never sleeps as well.”
The T previously extended night service an hour and a half on weekends through a pilot program launched in 2014. However, the T ended the program in 2016 due to high operating costs and low ridership, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Sorry. This form is no longer available.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com