Advocates push T to restore late-night service
Supporters say there’s demand and need for 'transportation equity'
MBTA OFFICIALS CONTINUED to take a slow approach to rebooting late-night bus service over concerns about cost despite a detailed plan from advocates and pleas from state and local officials that such a service is a matter of equity for low-income earners rather than a convenience for millennial barhoppers.
State Rep. Adrian Madaro of East Boston said he did an experiment by taking three different means of transportation from his district through the tunnel to see what the cost is to minimum wage earners in his neighborhood. Taxis and ride-hailing services cost eight to 10 times what a transit ride costs, he said. Madaro said a minimum wage worker whose hours end after MBTA service stops would spend 18 percent of his pretax earnings to commute home five times a week without public transit.
“It’s a threat to transportation equity,” he told the Fiscal and Management Control Board about the absence of late-night MBTA service.
