Light rail appears to turn in an hour too early

Metro light rail created a stir this week when it released its schedule. Metro chose to keep its schedule simple-- they promise a train will run every ten minutes during peak hours (vaguely defined as sunrise to sunset) and twenty minutes during other times. Wade through the labrynth of light rail schedules in other cities and you'll see that this was a good idea.

But I didn't like the simultaneous announcement that the train will end service at 1 a.m. Metro rail ought to stay open until bars close at 2 a.m., especially in a county in which drunk driving is a major problem (relative to other places across the U.S.).

Metro's projected closing at 1 a.m. is early when compared to its peers*:

City Rail Service Closing Hour

New York: n/a (subway runs 24 hours)
Washington, D.C.: 3 a.m.
San Diego: 2 a.m. (last trains run around 1 a.m. and reach final stops at 2 a.m.)
Denver: 2 a.m. (last trains run around 1 a.m. and reach final stops at 2 a.m.)
Dallas: 1 a.m. (last trains run around midnight and reach final stops at 1 a.m.)
Boston: 12:30 a.m.

* It should be noted that it may be too early to know exactly what a 1 a.m. closing means. For instance, while light rail ends service at 1 a.m. in San Diego, the last train reaches its ultimate destination around 2 a.m. If at the end of the night the trains need to head to the railyard at 48th Street and Washington, it could very well be that the last train will make its way through downtown Tempe and Phoenix well after 1 a.m. We'll see.