Rail Service Will Not End Early To Relief Of Late-Nighters

Commuter rail service in the Boston area will continue running late night trains on weekdays in a reversal from plans to end service at 9 p.m.

Authorities at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority told their board on Monday that they would continue running trains until 11 p.m. to “support the objective of maintaining service for key workers and transit-critical populations,” the Boston Globe reported.

Ridership on the trains is down 90% overall from before the coronavirus pandemic, with the greatest drop occurring during rush hours. But late-night ridership is currently around 18% of previous ridership, and the late trains support people coming and going to off-hour jobs, the newspaper reported.

The new schedule is supposed to start in April, and the MBTA says it anticipates running trains every hour on each commuter rail line and pulling back on the frequency of service during rush hours.

In December, the board in charge of the MBTA's budget approved cuts to service across rail, subway, ferry and bus lines, citing low ridership during the pandemic.