Photo by cacophony76.

WMATA’s board of directors caused quite a stir last Friday when D.C. representative Tom Downs and head of rail operations Dave Kubicek floated the possibility of rolling back closing time to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings in an effort to save money and gain precious maintenance time. Riders were angry, bars and restaurants got worried –frankly, the only people not disgusted with the prospect are taxi drivers. But this is hardly the first time such an idea has been bandied about — in fact, it appears to be something that comes up every couple of years, only to be washed away in a sea of heavy opposition.

Take February 2009, for example. Faced with a mounting budgetary crisis, the board went even further, suggesting a closing time of 10 p.m. on weekdays. General manager John Catoe was quick to dismiss such a prospect:

“Well, we are not going to close our system at 10 o’clock. I can definitely say that is not gonna happen. It would have to be a far worse economic crisis than what we are facing today, before I ever make that suggestion. That will not come out of my mouth and the board will not be considering that,” Catoe said.

Catoe was somewhat more flexible in 2007, however, when he asked Metro staffers to conduct a feasability study on cutting back late-night service. Catoe had suggested replacing rail service with bus service between Metro stations on Friday and Saturday evenings. “I have to look at every option I can to reduce costs,” Catoe told the Post in August 2007. He added, however, “I don’t know the numbers, but if we can’t save anything, I’m not even going to take it to the board.”