When Boston hosts its first World Cup match next month, the MBTA will briefly bring back something it hasn’t offered for more than 60 years: overnight train service.
The June 13 match between Haiti and Scotland kicks off at 9 p.m. and is expected to last roughly two hours. The late finish will force transit officials to run trains across all lines as late as 4 a.m. the next day.
The T is responsible for carrying roughly 20,000 fans to and from Gillette Stadium, temporarily renamed Boston Stadium for the soccer tournament. The transit agency plans to run commuter rail trains from Foxborough every 15 minutes after each match ends.
After the late June 13 game, the last commuter rail will depart for South Station three-and-a-half hours after the match concludes, meaning hundreds of fans likely won’t return to Boston until just a couple hours before sunrise.
Boston hasn’t offered overnight train service since 1964, transit historian Steven Beaucher told GBH News in 2023. That’s the year that the MBTA took over operation of Boston’s subway lines. Before the T, Beaucher said, Boston regularly ran 24-hour service.
But with this one-time World Cup extension, MBTA riders shouldn’t get their hopes up about regular overnight service, said Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, the transit system’s public oversight body.
“This comes up every couple years,” Kane said, “and every couple years I say the same thing: ‘No.’”
Kane, who spoke with GBH News during a panel at the Boston Public Library Monday, said overnight service is simply a non-starter for transit officials in the region because of the price tag, adding that the few hours when MBTA trains do not run is essential for crews to conduct maintenance work.
“We have tried 24-hour overnight service over and over again,” Kane said. “And it’s failed every time, not because there’s not enough ridership, but because it’s too expensive.”
Kane also argued that overnight service — especially on the commuter rail — will not be popular with people who live along the Foxboro line.
“I guarantee you the next day, my office will be flooded with phone calls of neighbors in these cities and towns who are woken up at 3 in the morning by a diesel train going by,” he said. “We have to think about this holistically before we start doing things like, ‘Let’s operate this 24-7.’ We’re just not there yet.”
The MBTA announced plans to expand evening service on the subway and certain bus and ferry routes last fall. In the months since, T riders have been able to catch rides as late as 2 a.m. on some lines.
The MBTA did not respond to multiple requests for comment from GBH News about expanding overnight service after the World Cup ends.
