Photo by mosely.brian.

Well, this would certainly put a crimp into several people’s weekend plans. According to dispatches from this morning’s Metro board meeting — during which random bag searches will be discussed by the board for the first time — there has been talk about ending late-night service on Friday and Saturday nights. According to TBD’s Dave Jamieson, offering service between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. on weekends costs the system about $3 million per year, which works out to right around $3 per rider, per weekend evening. (The board said that about 9,700 riders use the service every weekend night.)

Jamieson reports that “Board member Peter Benjamin actually wondered allowed if SoberRide could pick up some of Metro’s slack.”

Uh, good luck with that one, Mr. Benjamin.

MORE: David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington is at the board hearing today, and notes that the idea of cutting late-night weekend service was proposed to not only save money, but as a way to increase the amount of time for track maintenance work.

Rail operations head Dave Kubicek said the late-night Friday and Saturday service forces WMATA to pay the equivalent “adding an eighth day of work” each week. Cutting back the hours to midnight from 3 am would effectively give them 45 more days per year to perform track work.

The Board also discussed plans to hold hearings and give the public a chance to weigh in on these issues.

Well, that should be fun. Alpert also notes that the board is considering cutting off-peak Yellow Line service to Fort Totten.