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Endangered species
With its new Night Owl service, the MBTA is finally giving some Bostonians a car-free way to get home after 1 a.m. But skimpy scheduling and promotion could kill it off before it catches on.

BY DORIE CLARK


IT’S FRIDAY NIGHT, and you’re partying in Harvard Square. To get home to Brighton, you need to: a) leave the bar more than an hour before closing, because the subway stops running at 12:50 a.m. and most buses make their last runs only 10 minutes later; b) shell out money for a cab; or c) walk. But starting tomorrow, you have another option. On Fridays and Saturdays for the next year, the T will run " Night Owl " buses along all four subway lines, as well as seven popular bus routes, every half-hour until 2:30 a.m.

There’s widespread support for the pilot program. University officials support " anything that facilitates the safe transportation of our students, " as Boston College’s Jack Dunn says. Local businesses are pleased that their customers won’t have to cut their evenings short by making a mad dash for the subway. Mothers Against Drunk Driving is enthusiastic; MADD spokeswoman Amy Fradette hopes it’ll encourage people not to " get in a car and drive if they’ve had too much to drink. " Even environmental groups like the idea: after all, mass transit — whether it’s during rush hour or past midnight — is simply better for the environment. " We’re unabashedly in support of expanding access to public transportation, period, " says Rob Sargent of MassPIRG.

Late-night service isn’t a new idea. From the inception of public transit until 1960, Boston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (the precursor to today’s MBTA) ran 24 hours a day, with buses eventually taking the place of the subway at night. But the overnight program was a money-loser, and by the end it was siphoning off more than seven times as much revenue as it brought in. Notes MBTA historian George Sanborn, " They were losing so much money, and were afraid of increasing the deficit because they didn’t receive federal funds. " Today, the financial constraints are even tighter. The state used to give the T whatever it needed to operate, but in May 1999, the legislature passed a law mandating that the T, like other state agencies, abide by a fixed budget. So now the only state funds the MBTA receives are a portion (one percent) of the Massachusetts sales tax; the agency funds the rest of its budget with fares, parking fees, advertising on vehicles and in subway stations, and rental income from T-owned real estate. Worried that the cost of late-night service would be too high and the demand too low, today’s T officials were extremely reluctant to try again — until pressure from the State House and city officials (including a March hearing and rally at City Hall attended by Mayor Tom Menino) prompted the agency to launch the one-year pilot program.

On its surface, the plan looks solid. It tests demand on the nights when most people go out, and operates past last call at most bars. But as the service begins its trial run, local activists have been raising concerns about whether the T might be sabotaging the project with poor promotion and an insufficient schedule. Says Seth Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation, " You could be creating a service that’s programmed for failure. "

ADVOCATES HAVE reason to be skeptical — previous attempts to introduce late-night service never got off the ground. In May 1999, Beacon Hill’s joint House and Senate Transportation Committee ordered the T to prepare a late-night weekend pilot program to begin in January of 2000. But that never happened, angering committee members. " They made a false promise once, in January of 2000, and that program never materialized " recalled Senator Steven Tolman, a committee member, during March’s City Hall hearing. MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo has a different recollection: " We don’t know where that came from, that there was a commitment to [late-night service]. Are they saying the T said it would happen? We had gone to a hearing at the State House on the issue where we talked about developing a pilot program, but no date was ever set for developing it. " Whether or not the T technically broke a promise, late-night service was shelved.

Now that it’s finally here, some wonder whether the T is really behind the new program. " It’s taken a lot of effort by a lot of people, " says City Councilor Paul Scapicchio of the North End. " Mike Ross and I did a rally, " he adds, referring to the Fenway city councilor, " but that was just one step. It’s taken a lot of pressure on the MBTA. " He says the agency’s support for the Night Owl service " probably is reluctant right now. " Mayor Tom Menino agrees: " It’s half-baked; it’s not a real effort. It’s a pacifier. "

Pesaturo concedes that political pressure played a role in the agency’s decision to roll out the service. " There was a move afoot in the state legislature, in the transportation committee, " he says. " City officials, community groups, restaurant associations — they all chimed in on this, so it became clear we would have to launch some type of pilot program and find out if there is a need and demand for this type of late-night service. " But he bristles at suggestions that the T might not fully support the program. " There’s going to be an all-out media blitz to generate attention to this service, " he says. " To suggest that the T is hoping this doesn’t succeed is nonsense. "

Local activists aren’t convinced. First of all, the MBTA’s publicity campaign doesn’t seem to be reaching even those with a special interest in transportation. Two weeks before the service’s launch, Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation was mystified by the agency’s lack of outreach. " I don’t really know how they’re [publicizing] it, " he says. " It’s being done in a little bit of a stealth manner. In some of the communities that the buses are going to be run through, there has been concern there hasn’t been consultation about it. People just see the signs with a little owl on it. "

Pesaturo, however, touts the agency’s contest in the Boston Herald earlier this summer to come up with a mascot for the service (the cuddly owl), and the program is prominently displayed on its Web site. The T has been displaying " mini-billboards " in subways and buses (1000 in total), as well as 2000 street signs indicating where people can catch the late-night buses. T personnel will be handing out info cards promoting Night Owl service to commuters this week at major stations (including State Street, Government Center, Back Bay, Park Street, Downtown Crossing, South Station, and North Station). Today, September 6, there’s going to be a news conference, chock full of elected officials such as Menino. And after the T has finished printing by the end of this week, the agency plans to distribute 50,000 schedule booklets to downtown restaurants, businesses, and colleges.

But the T is falling short of its own marketing plan. By this point, a " wrapped " bus advertising Night Owl service was supposed to be on the streets; it isn’t. Three planned billboards (in Braintree, Kenmore Square, and Malden) were going to plug the service. None has gone up yet, and only one (on I-93 northbound near the Dorchester–South Boston line) may see the light of day. Pesaturo writes in an e-mail, " The others depend on the availability of funds in the marketing budget. "

And even if riders do hear about the service, that doesn’t mean they’ll use it. The fact that buses are running in place of the subway may dampen ridership. Sargent of MassPIRG believes that " the perception — and, in many ways, the reality — that bus service is less reliable than the train " will keep potential users away. T officials have said that the aging subway system can’t run later because it needs to be shut down for service each night. But Sargent says, " They need to think creatively about late-night service on the subways themselves. Rather than coming up with all the reasons why it isn’t possible, they should be thinking about the ways they can make it happen. " Kaplan agrees, and thinks the T’s claim is specious: " The actual age of the system isn’t determined by when it was first opened, but by when the current hardware was installed.... The year they began operation is not really all that relevant. " He adds, " Maybe you need a regular rotation, to shut down the service at a point and substitute buses. But do you have to do it every single night? "

Besides, if Night Owl service is supposed to make the city’s nightlife accessible as long as the bars are open, its schedule is self-defeating. In many cases, making the 2:30 a.m. cutoff will be difficult for people who stay until closing time — especially if they have to change buses. In the Harvard Square–Brighton scenario, you’d still have to drag yourself away before the 2 a.m. closing to catch the 1:52 bus inbound, switch at Government Center (that’s where all the late-night service originates), and catch the last Green Line bus outbound, which leaves at 2:30. If you got wrapped up in your evening and forgot to leave early, you could take the last bus out of Harvard Square, the 2:32. But you’d arrive at Government Center by 2:55 a.m. — with no way to get home.

Another problem is that late-night service doesn’t even begin to help late-shift workers. Steve Tolman says, " I’m delighted that we’re extending the hours on Friday and Saturday and I look for a lot of support, but certainly I’d like to see it every night. " Menino agrees: " They’re giving us weekend service, and that’s helpful to the entertainment field, but there are working people who need that [on other nights of the week]. " Even on weekends, employees at bars, hotels, and restaurants may be out of luck. Paul Barclay, the owner of the Rack, a popular Faneuil Hall bar and pool hall, says it’s " very unlikely " that any employees could take advantage of the 2:30 departure because they’re usually cleaning up until 3 or 3:30 a.m.

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Issue Date: September 6 - 13, 2001






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