Rain complicated the night of tens of thousands of Beyoncé fans at FedEx Field yesterday, but at least her tour stepped in to pay for later hours on Metro so they could get home.

A storm delayed the show until about 10 p.m. and it let out around 12:15 a.m., according to setlist.fm.

Metro service usually ends at midnight on Sundays, but extended service a half hour later to accommodate fans. When rain delayed the start of the show, Beyonce’s tour production stepped in to pick up the $100,000 tab to keep the system open until 1 a.m.

Fans were happy to hear the news, but they also had a lot of questions about why the transit system belonging to the nation’s capital doesn’t operate later at night.

Why doesn’t Metro run later?

In the mid-2010s, Metro ran until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and midnight on other days. Then in 2016, it cut back hours to allow more time for maintenance work to keep the system running in a more reliable state. (Every additional hour Metro is in service at night means less work can get done overnight – setup and take down of work zones takes a long time.)

In 2018, some D.C. councilmembers and nightlife leaders called for the system to return to a 3 a.m. closing, but that never happened.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the system pivoted to a much earlier closing time, 9 p.m., as demand was down. By 2021, it returned to the current schedule.

Metro ridership isn’t very high late Sunday nights. About 2,000 people tap into the system between 11 p.m. and midnight on average, according to Metro ridership reports.

Metro’s board chooses operating hours each year and so far the group appears satisfied with the 1 a.m. closing on Fridays and Saturdays and midnight every other day.

Why does Metro make sports teams or artists pay to keep the system open longer?

For years, Metro has required teams like the Capitals and Nationals to pay for extra hours of service for later-night playoff games that go past their usual service hours. The current policy began in the late 2010s as many sports teams were making deep runs into the playoffs.

Metro charges the groups $100,000 an hour to recoup the operating costs but then deducts the amount of fares they collect during those extra hours. Metro usually requires these agreements two weeks in advance to line up worker schedules and adjust overnight track work. They also limit late-night or extra-hour events to 10 a year so as to not harm maintenance efforts. The Marine Corps Marathon regularly pays for extra service. Comcast, Uber, and Monumental Sports have stepped in to pick up the tab for some playoff games.

For the Sunday Beyonce concert, Metro decided to originally extend service an extra half hour to accommodate fans, but then when the bad weather hit, the tour stepped in to pay the $100,000 fee to keep trains running until 1:04 a.m. Metro says they held the train even later to accommodate everyone. Metro says the night was busy, but aside from a few complaints, they got everyone home.

Why doesn’t Metro run 24 hours?

Back in the 1960s and ’70s Metro was also mainly planned as a hybrid commuter/subway system to get federal workers into and out of D.C.

In reality, very few subway systems outside of New York run 24 hours. New York can do that because it has three or more tracks on its lines. Metro only has two tracks.

But because Metro only has two tracks, most regular maintenance has to be done overnight. That means the whole system has to shut down to get maintenance vehicles to their worksites. Metro workers would also face increased dangers if they had to work around partial closures.

Metrorail will almost certainly never run around the clock because of these constraints, but a 24-hour bus system may be coming soon. Most major cities run “night owl” bus service.

Will Pink fans face a similar Metro time crunch for tonight’s show at Nats Park?

Hopefully not. Her shows usually end around 11 p.m., according to setlist.fm, and the last trains leave Navy Yard for Fort Totten at 11:52 a.m. and Branch Ave. at 12:18 AM. It’s a much shorter walk between Nats Park and Navy Yard.

But storms do appear to threaten tonight’s show as well. The Capital Weather Gang says numerous storms, which could be severe, are probable between the 5 and 10 p.m. window. Meteorologists say storms should head out around midnight.

In that case, watch Pink’s, Nats Parks, and Metro’s Twitter accounts.