Night bus

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Night buses usually have much fewer passengers than daytime buses, but the bus companies in Hong Kong still use large double-decker buses for most night bus routes. Note that the night bus services in Hong Kong have route numbers beginning with the letter "N", which stand for "Night bus".

A night bus is a bus service which operates through the night time hours. Many cities operate such services, in substitution for either ordinary daytime bus services or metro/subway rail services. Night bus service is much more limited than daytime bus service, there are fewer lines and the buses run less frequently. In some cities such services have their own fare structure, in others the standard bus fare structure applies. The service might sometimes be advertised as "Owl Service". 24 hour services, sometimes have no advertisement, and require looking at a bus map, or schedule to connect the dots.

Some cities may also have a practice in effect overnight, called Request-A-Stop where a passenger may disembark the bus at any point along the route (like the persons's doorstep), even if it is not a bus stop.

[edit] Cities with night bus services

[edit] United Kingdom

• Brighton
• Bristol
• Crawley Fastway Route 10 runs 30 minutes through the night.
• Edinburgh
• Gateshead (Saturday & Sunday mornings only. Run by Stagecoach North East)
• Glasgow
• Liverpool (Saturday & Sunday mornings only. Run by Arriva)
• London: See Buses in London article.
• Manchester
• Newcastle upon Tyne (Nightly N21 run by Go North East, and other services on Saturday & Sunday mornings only run by Stagecoach North East)
• Southampton (Saturday & Sunday mornings only)

[edit] Netherlands

• Amsterdam
• Rotterdam
• The Hague

[edit] Germany

• Berlin
• Bonn
• Düsseldorf
• Essen
• Hamburg
• Hannover
• Frankfurt
• München
• Nürnberg
• Velbert
• Wuppertal

[edit] Portugal

• Lisbon

[edit] China

• Beijing
• Hong Kong

[edit] Ireland

• Dublin: See Dublin article.

[edit] United States

• Austin, Texas (operates until 3 a.m. Tuesday thru Sunday mornings only; no Monday morning service)
• Chicago
• Foothill Transit (San Gabriel Valley, California)
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• New York City (most routes operate until at least 1am, many continuing to run 24 hours a day; standard fares apply)
• San Francisco Bay Area: AC Transit, SamTrans, San Francisco Municipal Railway, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority operate owl service as part of the regional All-Nighter Network
• Los Angeles County, California
• New Jersey Transit (Northern New Jersey only)
• Orange County, California
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia)
• Miami-Dade Transit (Miami-Dade County, FL)
• King County Metro (Seattle)
• Maryland Transit Administration (Baltimore)

[edit] Australia

• Sydney (rail replacements between 0001 and 0400 every day - special fares apply)
• Melbourne (Saturday & Sunday mornings and some special occasions only)
• Brisbane (NightLink services running late on Friday and Saturday nights - standard fares apply)
• Gold Coast (24-hr Gold Coast Highway services - standard fares apply)
• Adelaide (Wandering Star services operate from 12:30am to 5:00am Friday and Saturday nights and take you direct to your door)

[edit] New Zealand

• Auckland (NiteRider, operated by MAXX, N-prefix routes)
• Christchurch (After Midnight Express, operated by Red Bus)
• Wellington (After Midnight, operated by Metlink, N-prefix routes)

[edit] Romania

• Braşov

[edit] Russia

• Moscow

[edit] Canada

• Toronto: called the Blue Night Network. Operated by the Toronto Transit Commission.
• Vancouver
• Montreal

[edit] Austria

• Vienna

[edit] Switzerland

• Zurich (only on Friday night/Saturday morning and Saturday night/Sunday morning)

[edit] Singapore

• Singapore

[edit] Hungary

• Budapest - Night buses are numbered 9xx. The weekend timetables differ a bit from the weekdays timetables. They are maintained by BKV (Budapest Transport Company). For details, check the BKV homepage.

[edit] Finland

• Helsinki Metropolitan Area

[edit] Withdrawn services

• Cardiff, UK discontinued it's night bus service in March 2006.
• Colchester, UK used to have one for clubbers but this was withdrawn due to losses. It would have been profitable if only run on Friday and Saturday nights. It is hoped the service will resume with a revised timetable.
• Durham, UK had three nightbus routes, which were provided as part of a deal between the City Council and a nightclub. The nightclub was only granted its licence to stay open past 11pm on the condition that it made some provision to get revellers home. Sadly the service ceased within a year, due to low passenger numbers.
• Boston, U.S.'s MBTA had a "Night Owl" bus service but it has been canceled as of June 24, 2005.

[edit] The night bus in literature

The London night bus was the inspiration for J. K. Rowling's Knight Bus.

[edit] See also

• Public transport as a sleeping place