Harvard Students Ambivalent About Late Night T Cuts

Uber and Lyft may have gained some new customers from Harvard this week. March 18 marked the end of late night service on the T, a popular option for students who frequent downtown Boston or MIT on weekends.

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority voted unanimously to cut late night T service on weekends in February. The cuts officially end T service after midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Previously, the T ceased operation at 2:00 a.m. on weekends.

Despite the news, Harvard undergraduates said they were either unaware or ambivalent about the change, lamenting the loss of service but showing no signs of changing their weekend plans.

People rush in and out of the Harvard Square T station shortly before the service shut down for the night on Saturday, the first night during which there was no late-night T service. By Helen Y. Wu

“I feel like plenty of people will just not bother changing their own plans,” Dalen L. Ferreira ’19 said. “A lot of people wouldn’t mind walking back and forth from MIT to here.”

In the face of the cuts, students said without the T they would instead use resort to ride sharing services after midnight on weekends.

“I guess some people who are going into Boston late at night will resort to Uber anyway,” Marie C. Becker ’18 said. “Personally, I don’t feel affected by it and I don’t think most Harvard students do.”

“I’d probably start Ubering,” Makeda V. Daniel ’19 said. “It wouldn’t stop me from going out.”

The changes stand to disproportionately affect the Harvard Square T stop compared to other stations. An MBTA report from last February found Harvard Square was the fourth busiest station during late night hours.

Ferreira worried that the cuts may create difficulty for students getting back from school vacations.

“People are getting back in tonight from South Station, how are they going to get back?” Ferreira said.

Before cuts, students had the option of riding the Silver Line from Logan Airport and taking the Red Line from Amtrak at South Station at late hours on weekends.

Nick S. Morihisa ’18 raised worries about visiting friends who live off campus.

Students expressed concern in January after the MBTA announced the possibility of cuts, citing expensive Uber and Lyft rides. Yet, for city officials and residents, the primary concern was not for college students but rather for low-income workers who may be affected by the cuts.

Late night cuts, a fare increase and other money saving measures have decreased the MBTA’s projected budget for the 2017 fiscal year to a $134 million deficit, reflecting more than $104 million in cost cuts.

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