Phoenix Blog

Benjamin Leatherman

Don't miss your stop, broham.

At last, the train we've wanted to ride is finally pulling up to the station, so to speak.

METRO light rail is becoming a post-midnight express as of tomorrow with service offered until last call on weekend evenings. The trains will run approximately every 20 minutes until 2 a.m. when the last ride of the night departs either the westbound or eastbound termini, ultimately arriving at the opposite end of the line an hour later.

Which means you can possibly stay out later this weekend at tomorrow's First Friday or Saturday's various Fourth of July festivities without worrying about risking the wrath of the cops (and saving a few lives, as well). So order up another round or spend some more time trying to get the digits of that chick that keeps blowing you off, since Valley Metro's got your ride home covered.

Make sure to save a little extra pocket change, however, as fare prices have also recently increased to $1.75 for a single ride and $3.50 for an all night pass.

And if you're looking for some places to debark and drink, be sure to revisit our Night Train bar crawl we published back in December.

Fear not, Festival goers! Valley Metro has your back...for two nights.

For an unprecedented third time since its December launch, the Metro Light Rail will be extending its hours to accommodate those patrons of the Tempe Music Festival (April 3rd & 4th) hoping to catch either night's later sets. The Tempe Music Fest now joins New Year's Eve and the NBA All-Star Game festivities as worthy of breaking the 'Nix's strict light rail curfew. It's a gracious move passed down by those in charge at Valley Metro, especially since the light rail passes right by Tempe Beach Park, the site of the festival. The rather strict guidelines for when the last train heads home has drawn plenty of controversy over the light rail's brief 3 month tenure, but this move can be seen as much needed progress. Somewhere, Kid Rock and 3 Doors Down (the last set on both nights) are smiling, but that's probably because they were either once married to Pam Anderson or they have their music sponsored by the National Guard.

The Phoenix Metro Light Rail has been the talk of the town since voters approved the $1.4 billion project in 2000. The public transit system opened on December 27, and Valley denizens have both praised and bemoaned the rail. The most common complaint is that Light Rail service stops at midnight, but should run later.

 

Here are Ten Reasons Metro Light Rail Needs to Extend Its Hours Until 2 a.m.  

Is it just us, or have people in this town lost their balls? For instance, we reported on Wednesday about local photographer Morgan Bellinger's plan to stage a light rail sit-in later this month as a way to protest the fact that the trains stop running at midnight. But now he's pulled an complete about face on the matter and cancelled the event following a con-fab with Valley Metro officials.

The fervor over the light rail's early closing time continues to get bigger.

As we've previously written about here and here, a growing number of Valley urbanites are pissed off over the fact the light rail system stops at midnight instead of running until 2 a.m. and providing the drinking crowd with a way of getting home. (Currently the last trains of the night depart the eastern and western termini at 11 p.m.).

And now they're taking a page from the 60s protest playbook to try and get things changed: Morgan Bellinger, a local photojournalist, is organizing a light rail sit-in later this month as a way of voicing his dissatisfaction with the situation.