Getting home after last call

After the T stops, you take a bus or a ride, and you decide which before your first drink. The trains are the part that ends: the MBTA says there is no overnight train service in Boston.

For tonight's last trains on your line, use the live Last Train page. This guide is about what to do with the answer.

What runs, and what does not

Buses outlast the trains. The MBTA's own list has many routes that already run overnight, so look for one in the Trip Planner before you assume you are stuck.

Friday and Saturday nights get more time, but not on every line. The MBTA gives them extended service hours, and our own pull of the schedule shows who actually gets it.

Line by line

All of this is from our pull of the MBTA schedule (api-v3.mbta.com, Nov 9, 2026), comparing a weeknight with the coming Friday and Saturday. Schedules change, so treat it as a pattern.

• Red and Orange end about an hour later on Friday and Saturday than on a weeknight.
• Blue gets that hour on Friday only. On Saturday it ends where a weeknight does, so do not count on it.
• Green has the latest-ending branches of any line in our pull, weeknights included. The D and B branches ran longest.
• Mattapan trolley also ran later on Friday and Saturday in our pull.

The gap shows up after midnight. In our pull, Red has 11 to 12 departures from Park Street in each direction on Friday and Saturday, against 7 on a weeknight.

Commuter rail is the one to watch. In our own pull of the MBTA's published schedules (api-v3.mbta.com, Nov 9, 2026), it did not stretch on weekends, and its last arrivals mostly landed before the last Friday and Saturday subway trips. If your night ends in Salem, Lowell or Lynn, work backwards from the train, not forwards from the bar.

Late buses

In our pull, routes 28, 111, 23, 57 and 116 end at the same late point every night, weekends included, while routes 1, 22, 39 and 66 run later on Friday and Saturday than on a weeknight. In our pull, routes 9 and 77 ended at roughly the same point on every night we checked. If your line has quit, check these before you reach for the app.

Stations to head for

One missed connection is how most bad nights go wrong, so aim for a station where lines meet.

• Park Street has the Red Line and all four Green branches.
• Downtown Crossing joins Red and Orange.
• South Station has Red and the commuter rail lines to the south and west.
• North Station has Orange, the D and E Green branches and the commuter rail lines to the north.

These line lists come from the MBTA's own stop data (api-v3.mbta.com, Nov 9, 2026), not from the station pages linked above.

Plan the driver first

MADD asks you to line up a sober driver before you drink. Settle who it is, or which ride you are taking, before you order. Do not drive after drinking.

Taxi and rideshare

Boston Police count three kinds of for-hire ride: taxis, livery cars and rideshare. Two checks are worth doing every time:

• An app ride confirmation shows the driver's photo, plate and car. Match all three before you get in.
• Ask the driver their name, and check it against your confirmation text.

We found no current, dated fare table from the city, so we are not quoting taxi prices. Check the fare on the meter or in the app first.

Bluebikes

A single trip is $3.00 for one ride up to 30 minutes. That is a fair deal for a short hop and a bad one for a long ride home.

The system runs year-round, but some on-street stations get pulled for winter. Check the station map before you walk to a dock.

The bikes have a front LED light and reflective paint. Ebikes stay off sidewalks.

Biking after drinking is a bad idea. Bluebikes publishes no rule on it that we could quote, so this one is ours: if you would not drive, do not ride.

The RIDE

The MBTA's paratransit service runs on similar operating hours to the MBTA, so it is not a late-night fix by itself. Its customers can also book on-demand rides through MBTA partners Uber and Lyft, which is the useful part after the trains stop.

If something goes wrong

On MBTA property, dial 911, or call the MBTA Transit Police at 617-222-1212. You can also report by text message to 617-600-0683. Save both numbers before you go out.

What we could not source

The Massachusetts drunk-driving pages on Mass.gov block automated reading, and we could not quote Logan Airport's current rideshare pickup rules, which have changed more than once. For either, check the official page on the day.