What type of service levels are run on transit and subway systems in North America over Christmas? Here in Britain we have NOTHING, yes nothing, on Christmas Day, and a pretty restricted service on Boxing Day.
Cricketer What type of service levels are run on transit and subway systems in North America over Christmas? Here in Britain we have NOTHING, yes nothing, on Christmas Day, and a pretty restricted service on Boxing Day.
In most large cities in the United States, e.g. New York, Washington, Dallas, etc., public transit service on Christma usually adheres to a holiday schedule. These schedules frequently are the same as those for any weekend.
In Dallas, Texas, where I lived for 31 years before moving to the Austin area, the bus and light rail trains run on a holiday schedule, which means relatively light service in the morning. It usualy builds during the afternoon. However, the Trinity Railway Express between Dallas and Fort Worth does not run on Christmas or other major holidays. In fact, it does not run on Sundays, which makes travel for its dependents without an alternative form of transport difficult. One can get there on a bus, but it is a challenging trip requiring several transfers.
In Austin the city buses run on Christmas as well as other major holidays. However, the suburban buses do not run. The suburban service is really intended for commuters, most of whom have a car, so the number of people inconvenienced by the absence of service is minimal.
I'm also surprised UK has nothing at all on Christmas. British Rail? (Network Rail now)? The Underground in London? Buses or coaches? When I was stationed in Germany the local streetcar (Straßenbahn or electric tram) didn't run New Year's Eve, as I remember; but it ran on Sunday (Sonntag). In Adelaide nothing ran on Su. am. No buses, trains, even the one surviving Glenelg tram. I was stuck in town, couldn't get to the beach; absolutely nothing ran. "City of Churches", indeed. This was around 72, Germany in 62; dunno about now. Service in the Denver Metro Area (including Boulder) is Su./holiday so it's reasonable (and free New Year's Eve).
--Roger Williams, Boulder.
Not too sure how essential workers, which on Christmas Day will pretty much only be hospitals, police ambulance and fire service get to work. Assume that those rostered to work will all have cars. I'll admit things would be very quiet, especially in the morning, but there are a good many people (c50%) in some areas who do not have cars, a good few who like a drink, and also a fairly substantial population who are not celebrating Christmas (Moslems, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus to name but four). I suspect you could get at least a bus service to run on Christmas Day, especially if the rostering was flexible enough to offer up a day in lieu to be taken at specified, in advance, non-Christian religious festivals.
A lack of Christmas service is only British as far as I know; can vaguely remember Berlin in the early 1980s running a Sunday service, and of course, given the American responses, Christianity does not require nothing to run.
Sundays in general are a different thing, with at least in London a pretty decent service. I seem to remember Berlin in the early 1980s running a Sunday service.
New Year's eve on the other hand in London is all hands to the transit pump, with all night services on the Underground and even some train lines. In contrast most underground trains leave the city centre about 00:30 normally, with many main line suburban services gone by midnight. Also, although outside this forum's normal discussion area, there are loads of night buses and a good few special services on the bus front early into 1 Jan.
Here in Los Angeles, the countywide transit authority, Metro, operated with free fares for all of its trains and buses for Christmas Eve, from 9pm on Dec 24 to 2am on Dec 25.
On New Year's Eve, Metro will also operate free trains and buses during those same hours from Dec 31 to Jan 1, and all of its Metro Rail lines will run for 24 hours (the rail lines usually run 19 or 20 hours a day). This is important not just to lessen incidents of drunk driving, but that the annual Tournament of Roses Parade (aka the Rose Parade) in Pasadena runs in our backyard and one of our light rail lines directly serves the route, so paradegoers are able to stake out their place along the parade at any hour.
As for service frequency, the trains will be running every 20 minutes (3x an hour) overnight on New Year's Eve. There is also a "Sundays and Holidays" schedule that Metro operates on that applies to Christmas, New Year's and all legal holidays as well as on Sundays.
Here in San Francisco, everything's on a Sunday schedule. Dec 26 is usually a big shopping day here (USA) and regular Saturday service is scheduled. BART usually runs short (3-4-5) car trains on Saturday, but when crowds are expected, long trains (6 and 8/9/10 cars) are run.
Here in mostly Catholic Austria we observe 2 Christmas days. On Christmas Eve after 8 p.m. there is usually a very thin service in the cities, tram lines, light rail, underground (where appliccable) and buses running a schedule of 2 services per line per hour inside the central parts and some lines no service at all. Over both Christmas days the services are analog to normal Sunday schedules, starting with quarter hourly services at about 6 a.m. and intensifying after midday to a maximum of 8 trains per hour on some well used tram and bus services and on the underground.
New Years Eve will mean all night service, i.e. 24 hours on a twice an hour basis, New Years days will build up as on Sundays.
Vienna does have, like Berlin in Germany, an all night service on selected routes - every night but Christmas Eve (no night service) and New Years Eve (nearly full line service).
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