The MBTA will soon be adding late-night weekend service to subway lines, as well as popular bus routes in the Boston area.

Starting Aug. 24, service will be extended by about an hour on all subway lines, as well as eight frequent bus routes, on Friday and Saturday nights.

Some bus routes will have later service seven nights a week, and certain ferries will also run later, the T said.

Strategically adding service

"We have been able to get to the point where we've improved our system, we've built up the workforce, where we can now strategically add extended service on our subway system," MBTA General Manager Phil Eng told the agency's Board of Directors on Tuesday.

Right now, subway trains make their final stops between midnight and 1 a.m. on the weekends. Eng said extending service at night will help businesses and people who work late. 

The MBTA is also going fare-free after 9 p.m. for five consecutive Friday and Saturday nights, starting Sept. 5 through Oct. 4. 

"We're doing this within our operational budget," Eng said. "It is super exciting."

Late night MBTA service

The Red, Orange, Blue, Green and Mattapan Lines will all see nearly an hour of extended service on Friday and Saturday nights.

Bus routes 1, 22, 39, 66, 110, SL1, SL3 and SL5 will also run about an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights.

The busy Route 23, 28, 57, 111 and 116 bus lines will have an extra hour of service every night of the week, the MBTA said.

On the water, the Hingham/Hull ferries will run an hour later on Friday evenings. Service is being extended to 10 p.m. on the Charlestown and East Boston ferries on Friday and Saturday evenings. 

Boost for nightlife 

Some T riders think it will help improve nightlife in the city. 

"I think the reason that nightlife is Boston can be so lame, is because so many people use the T," a rider named Seth said. "If people are going to be able to be out later, and get home later, it will be more live at night." 

"There are plenty of other cities in the country where things are open later, and a big driver of that is the transportation is open later as well," said a T rider named Devin. 

Maeve, a bartender at the Beantown Pub, hopes the new hours will bring more young people into the bar. 

"As a bartender, I would love for them to stay open later because that gets us more business into the night," Maeve said. "A lot of people are buying Ubers at like 2 a.m. and it's like 70 bucks to get home."

People who work in Boston say the move will be a big help financially.

"I usually Uber home for, like, $40, which is like basically an hour of pay, so it's brutal," said Tess Woodlief, who is a bartender and Green Line rider. She says sometimes, she asks to go home early so she can catch the train and save money.

Advocates welcome extended hours

"We have been advocating for late-night service for the better part of a decade," said Caitlin Allen-Connelly of TransitMatters. "We believe that extending the hours isn't just about convenience, but it's about building the kind of reliable, affordable transit system our region needs." 

The state tried extended weekend service back in 2014 but got rid of it less than two years later citing costs and lack of ridership. 

"The people that need it need it. I think it is important as a public good that we serve all riders to the best of our ability," said Seth Kaplan of TransitMatters. 

The bus routes that were chosen connect many underserved communities located north and south of the city. 

"I frankly think there are so many workers, essential workers also, who need those extra hours on the commute, and this is a great step toward that," said Maha Aslam of LivableStreets Alliance.