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Busier than rush hour on the Green Line as late-night service begins

Late night at Park Street. Photo by MBTA.

Late night at Park Street. Photo by MBTA.

Walkingbostonian reports on the first night of extra weekend service on the T:

B train totally crushed, busier than rush hour, after 2 am, and we had to leave many people behind on all the platforms.

Packing them in.

ElmerCat also rode the early-morning rails:

More people than I expected taking Ⓣ after 2 am tonight. Lots of people dancing on the Blue Line! I had a wonderful time!!!

However, he adds that at 2:04, Chinatown station was deserted - and the arrival signboards showed no arrival info.

All these people got on elsewhere.

Andrew Sandoval reports on the happy crowds:

Riding the T on the first night of extended hours. Cheering crowds chant. "Give me a T." "T." "What does that spell" "T"

Stephen M headed towards Forest Hills on the 39 around 2:45 a.m.:

The second to last 39 bus was so crowded!

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Comments

Any crime reports?

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No crime was reported as everyone was swallowed up in a giant sinkhole when the world LITERALLY ended.
Source: am posting from the beyond.

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So if the T experiences crime during the day will they discontinue rush hour service?

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Just asking.

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this is Boston a safe ass city and even as a safe city its the safest its ever been. seriously theres no threats at any time in Boston basically esp in the T and public areas

heres a thought....when was the last murder connected to gang ties Boston even had? like months ago

Boston doesnt have crime and the crime it does have rarely happens thats why every year its seeing 5-10% drops from an already really low crime rate

you have a better chance of being hit by an astroid than becoming a victim of crime in Boston

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Not sure if you are a troll -- or just have a seriously distorted perspective.

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Glad that reports from the first night of returning late-night service were a success!

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Common sense prevails! I never understood the argument against having the T running late on the weekends? Nor do I understand why it took so long for this? Boston is crawling with twenty somethings and bars. If you want to consider yourself a major U.S. city, you need reliable late night transportation.

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Since when does the T qualify as relible transportation?

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Is the T the step child that can't be gotten rid of but is treated like Cinderella? As much as I want to believe that T management are all excellent people with amazing interpersonal skills and an absolute commitment to being the best public transportation that exists...my idealism as always is thrown into the pail that poor Cinderella hauls to scrub the floors so that her sisters the Legislature can eat off of it.

Mysteries of how the T runs are nearly as unfathomable as Thomistic reasoning concerning the nature of God. But I have discovered clues.

Why are Orange Line trains frequently running 1 minute behind each other during rush hour? Because drivers exit trains for 5 minutes at Hay market leaving the trains going nowhere fast. By the time the driver returns, or the new driver takes over if it is a shift change, the next train is only 1 minute behind. Of course this means a packed train followed by an empty train. Common sense solution? Don't take five minutes to change drivers or find a less busy time to make the change.

Why are kids able to ride the T free instead of paying something? Because attendants are anywhere but at the station and so gaggles of kids hold the automatic doors open. At least when the turnstiles were still in place it was they had to squeeze through semi-opened turnstiles or jump. Common sense solution: Make sure an attendant is at the station all the time. And make sure the attendants are paying attention. I've seen one who was enraptured with what appeared to be a Bible (perhaps enraptured with the Rapture) while ignoring folks who have never used the ticket machines.

The whining and complaining aside I am glad the T is running later. Besides the booze hounds and late night booty calls there are also activities that involve neither. I hope that there will open up activities that are less about the booze and more about the socializing.

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"Why are kids able to ride the T free instead of paying something? Because attendants are anywhere but at the station and so gaggles of kids hold the automatic doors open."

http://www.mbta.com/fares_and_passes/reduced_fare_programs/

"Children under the age of twelve ride for free when accompanied by a paying adult. No ID required."

I know, I know, I had the same infuriated reaction as you did the first time I watched two adult Jumpstart chaperones pay the fare and then jam the faregates open for about 20 kids to run through. But, that's T policy.

I would like an attendant to be on hand at all stations, though, both to clear this up for angry bystanders and - more importantly - to employee access the gate open so that the rest of us don't have to sit through the angry YOU'RE EVADING THE FARE!! buzzer while people who are entitled by policy to a free ride take their free ride.

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These were teenagers without adult accompaniment. On Thursday the adolescents held the gates open by standing in the beam that senses when a person is about to exit. I don't even remember an alarm going off while they held the gates open. Perhaps it was because one teen paid to go through a gate and another quickly followed. Then both opened the gates as though they were about to exit. This happened with a 3rd gate. Then the other teens rushed through.

Then on Friday one teen paid and a bunch of others quickly scrammed through the gate. But again no station attendant on duty.

On both occasions these were older teens and possibly young adults. Granted one can not tell if they may have some legitimate reason for not paying. Perhaps they and paid in advance or were wearing a prototype T ring. But somehow I don't think that reduced fares applied in this instance.

Teens will be teens. To the best of my limited comprehension of the human species we each were a teen at some point. So evading fares and saying screw the system is both by natural and social design (which proves the Intelligent Designer was not so smart if it existed). But the real problem is that there should be a station attendant. Excepting an emergency if the attendant needs to leave the area then it would make sense to have a temporary replacement, especially at rush hour. I thought this was part of T staff moving from behind the toll booth and onto the area where in front of the gates. Otherwise what is the point of the ovoid shaped booths added to the stations when there were larger and roomier booths? I know that the older booths allow limited visual perception. But when there is no attendant watching what difference does it make?

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I've seen my son and his friends do this - and they all have the passes for the buses that they need to get to school. I asked him why and he said that it just takes a lot less time, particularly when the red line trains at Central or Kendall are arriving as they clear the gates.

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Nice work, keep it up Boston!

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