From: hrose@eff.org (Helen Trillian Rose)
Subject: Re: Drinking and the MBTA was Re: Sunday Liquor Sales
Organization: The Evil Fascist IRC Admins From Hell, Inc.
	<li73v1INN50e@news.bbn.com> <BZS.92Dec14224630@world.std.com>
	<BETSYS.92Dec15150940@ra.cs.umb.edu>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 22:13:41 GMT

Betsy> == Elizabeth Schwartz <betsys@cs.umb.edu> 

 Betsy> If you want to go to, say, The Paradise in Boston, and go home
 Betsy> to Cambridge on the MBTA, you have to leave by 11:30. Sometimes
 Betsy> opening acts don't go on until midnight! This means you either
 Betsy> have to a) pay $12 for a taxi or b) drive.

I dunno where "The Paradise" is, but last trains leave Park St at
12:45am. (red and green lines). Any MBTA person can tell you this (call
722-3200 if you don't believe me). They leave at 12:45 *on the nose*.

 Betsy>   We're not going to curb drinking and driving until we make it
 Betsy> possible for people to go out without driving. I'm glad to see
 Betsy> that "designated drivers" have become a social norm, but that
 Betsy> only reaches the RESPONSIBLE people.

So why not close the bars an hour earlier? (I know I'm setting myself up
for flames here :-)

 Betsy>   The MBTA ought to stay open until an hour after closing time.
 Betsy> Hell, it ought to run all night, like trains in bigger cities
 Betsy> do. In Chicago, which is admittedly MUCH bigger, certain routes
 Betsy> are "Night Own" routes and run all night. Most major points are
 Betsy> connected.

In my last-bus trips from Lechmere (1am) I've talked to many a driver
about this. They all say the same thing. If they had to work past 1am
they'd want double wages. There's a certain "threshold" where they still
consider it reasonable to work for "normal" pay and 1am is just pushing
the limits. Plus, if you kept the T running, you'd have to have 
(1) token sellers in each and every station, two in ones that don't
connect over (like Kendall).
(2) inspectors on the platform. more people who have been drinking makes
it more likely that people will be "misbehaving".
(3) dispatchers to direct the trains (they don't go by themselves)

etc, etc, etc. This, for Boston, who has the lowest subway fare of any
major city in the country. How much does the NYC Subway cost nowadays?

About the only thing the T *could* do (and I would suggest it) is
running buses instead of trains from 1am-5am (6am on Sundays). That way
you don't have to worry about most of the problems above. But it still
gets to be a problem. Buses have mechanical problems, don't run as
often, are more likely to have service delays, etc.

 Betsy>   And, maybe rural bars ought to get together and run a shuttle
 Betsy> service. Just a couple of connecting loops. I bet you could run
 Betsy> an hour's worth of bus service for a YEAR, ($5000 maybe?) for
 Betsy> the cost of handling one nasty road accident.

The problem, of course, is where to run the shuttle bus *to*. It costs a
fair amount of gas money to run to all over Boston and Cambridge.

--Helen
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