Ross calls for rally to extend T service hours

Area college students will unite tomorrow at City Hall Plaza with labor leaders, drunk driving opponents and city and state legislators to push for extended T service.

City Councilor Mike Ross (Back Bay, Fenway) helped organize the rally and has called on all of Boston’s college students to speak out on an issue he said has a huge impact on them.

“It’s a huge student issue,” Ross said. “I need them to come out and join us.”

Ross is pressuring the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority to offer 24-hour bus service on eight routes that run from Boston to outlying metropolitan areas.

He added students aren’t the only people that would benefit from extended service. He said third-shift workers, including construction workers and hospital employees need the service because there is little parking in Boston and cabs are expensive.

“It’s actually more than just a student issue,” Ross said. “This is something that is very important to many people. It’s really a coalition of folks who believe in this issue.”

Included in the coalition that will meet tomorrow at 2 p.m. are the SEIU Local 285 — a health care workers union — the Carmen’s Union of MBTA workers, members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Sen. Steven Tolman (D-Middlesex) and the Massachusetts Hospitality Association, which includes Pat Lyons, owner of several Boston clubs.

Ross said extended service is required to make late-night commuting safer and more cost-effective.

“It’s very difficult to find a cab. It’s expensive to find a cab,” he said. “And it’s a safety issue.”

Ross said he has received tremendous amounts of support from the community and his colleagues on the City Council.

He said many college students have written to him and explained how frustrating the lack of public transportation has been.

“One of the biggest questions I get is, ‘Why does the T shut down before we do?’” Ross said.

He said the Council nearly unanimously agreed to his proposal to rally for the extension of services, and he is confident such an extension will be put in place.

According to Ross, bus service has been used in the past. He said the service was offered in the 1950s, with buses departing from Haymarket to all parts of Greater Boston.

Even today, he said, the routes that take T collection workers into the city shortly before 5 a.m., when the system begins daily service, have been opened to the public. Ross said it would be easy for the MBTA to run those buses all night.

“This is not by any means a new idea,” he said.

Ross said using buses would be preferable to running trains all night.

“It would have to involve buses,” he said. “I don’t think it’s realistic to take this old antiquated system and run it 24-7.”

He also said it might not be realistic to run the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He said extending it to at least 3 a.m. would be enough. He did say, however, running buses later would be possible for most nights during the week.

“There’s a legitimate case to be made for seven days a week or least five,” he said.

He said running buses only for the weekend would be an acceptable pilot program.

Ross added the MBTA has not been cooperative in putting the initiative into practice, even after officials said they would try out extended service. He said these officials have also inflated the cost of the service to make it less appealing.

“I think that there was a lot of highballing going on with the numbers,” he said. “Last year the state really put pressure on the MBTA to do this. At one point they said they’d do this and at the last minute they said they’d do a study.”

He said the MBTA has estimated the extension would cost $7 million, but added he doubted the actual cost would be even half that.

Despite all of the positive energy that has been poured into the proposal, Ross said nothing will happen unless public action is taken.

“It’s not going to change until we make a statement,” he said.