Observation about Baltimore Light Rail

I noticed, from my research, the Baltimore light rail will not have holiday hours tonight. Am I the only one who thinks this is really dumb?

It also ends at midnight on the weekend. Shouldn't it run later to reduce drunk driving?

gprimr1 wrote:It also ends at midnight on the weekend. Shouldn't it run later to reduce drunk driving?

You'd sort of think so, wouldn't you? Especially given the line's proximity to the Inner Harbor entertainment district, which does not shut down early.

The Baltimore system also sleeps late on Sundays... no trains into the city from the south until late morning.

I can kinna understand the late start (although it sucks if you use the line for work like my gf did).

The night one is very bad, because I believe the line could do lot to help reduce drunk driving.

Also, when/if the red line is built, it will go right into fells point. It will be a damn shame if this line closes early, since Fells Point caters to young professionals who probably will use the light rail.

You might start to see hours getting expanded as more lines are built. The biggest problem is that the current two line rail transit system (essentially one light rail, and one subway) just isn't big enough to cover enough of the city to start generating a "rail transit culture" where people think of it as something more than just a commuter service to get to work, or the occasional ballgame. I would imagine that only when there's a more extensive network stitching together more neighborhoods, will you see the kind of demand that can support longer service hours.

The MTA-MD light rail line in Baltimore doesn't really run that close to the Inner Harbor, unless you're willing to walk a little.

I noted the same thing about DC's Metrorail system when it first opened--- The last trains passed each other at Metro Center at midnight. I suspect that part of the reason why these systems do not provide "owl" service, is that both Baltimore & Washington are relatively new to the rail rapid transit culture, and haven't yet developed the philosphy of some of the older rail rapid transit cities-- ie that the rail lines run all night, while certain bus routes shut down at midnight. In DC and Baltimore, it is exactly the opposite.

I'm going to be working for the MTA this summer and I'm going to try to seed the idea of using MTA to reduce drunk driving. I'm not sure how successful I will be though as an intern.

gprimr1 wrote:I'm going to be working for the MTA this summer and I'm going to try to seed the idea of using MTA to reduce drunk driving. I'm not sure how successful I will be though as an intern.

I wish you luck with that. Keep in mind, the reason that late night services are often cut (or never run) has to do with cost per passenger. Given that this service typically (barring special events or an unusually high level of nightlife) has the highest cost per passenger, due to low passenger counts. Simply put, you're not going to be able to attract enough party goers and bar hoppers to make the cost per passenger competitive with other times of the day. Transit service planning often comes down to a zero-sum game, there's only so much budget to go around, so the times that either fall at the outlying ends of the day, or have the highest cost per passenger, are what go. When that span of time that costs the most to operate falls at the end of the day, it will go. Keep in mind too that providing late night service is often more costly, especially if you really are heavily focusing on the bar hopping crowd that's going home half in the bag. As transit authorities typically have to pay their own security/police costs, providing that late night security to deal with drunks further adds to the cost.

Finally -- a thought that is mostly just my own opinion, as opposed to economics: Transit authorities are not social welfare agencies, or business development agencies, or public safety agencies. They have a typically very limited budget to satisfy demands that are often far outstripping their abilities to provide. If a city decides it wants mass transit used to fuel nightlife, and move people to and from bars without driving, then the cities/states/business associations/etc. need to find the funding to help the authorities operate those services. Late night transit service typically is an even bigger money-loser for authorities, I don't like seeing them have their funding diverted to that service when there are more pressing needs. As transit grows and expands, it will naturally see its service hours expand -- when the transit system (and its market) of a given city is developed enough, it will be easy to expand service later into the evening.

Most cities do not offer all night rail service, an exception being the NYC subway.

Even Chicago, London, Paris, and Tokyo do not run lines all night.

drewh wrote:Most cities do not offer all night rail service, an exception being the NYC subway.

Even Chicago, London, Paris, and Tokyo do not run lines all night.

From what I read in several places, this is true---even for systems which used to provide "owl" rail service. Philadelphia is a case in point.-- When I moved away from Philly in the late 1960's, all of its rail lines which used the subways, ran all night--- The MFSE, BSS, and the subway surface lines ( trolleys) ALL provided "owl" service. Certain bus routes closed at midnight, but those trunk rail lines ran 24/7. I see where, today, owl service on the MFSE is provided by buses. This is unfortunate wherever it occurs, as I always much preferred to ride rail rapid transit late at night to riding buses.

At least Owl bus service is better than no service, which unfortunately I think is what some cities do when the heavy rail trains stop running for the night.

Both Paris and London had late night bus service when I lived there. I believe Chicago does too.

IMO, NYC should shut the subway from 1-4. Late night service is un-reliable, in-frequent, and not very busy most times I have used it. In fact it is so un-reliable at night that I never use it to get to Penn Station anytime after 8pm. You end up missing your train and are then stuck at Penn for another hour. Quite frankly by the time 2 of you pay for the subway just few more dollars is a cab ride.

Closing for a few hours at night does allow for easier maintenance as well. The only reason I think the system doesn't close is the difficulty they would have in clearing everyone out, i.e. closing stations and removing people.