End of the barcar?

[Nova RTS 9147]

One for the Road? Bar Cars May Face a Last Call

 

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

 

The cocktails started early, before the train left Manhattan, and by 6 p.m. most of the passengers were already on the second round. Tiny vodka bottles and punched ticket stubs littered the floor. A game of dice by the bar was getting rowdy as a couple canoodled in the corner, beers in hand.

 

The bar car is a mainstay of the commuting life, a lurching lounge on wheels inseparable from the suburbia of Cheever and “Mad Men.” “The commute is so bad as it is,” explained Paul Hornung, a financial worker, as he sipped a Stella Artois. “This is the one thing you can look forward to.”

 

But perhaps not for long.

 

Having survived numerous attempts at prohibition and outlasted its brethren in the suburbs of Chicago and New Jersey, the bar car out of Grand Central Terminal is now facing its gravest threat: the great recession.

 

A new fleet of cars will soon replace the 1970s-era models now used by commuters on the Metro-North Railroad line heading to Connecticut. But with money tight, railroad officials said they could not yet commit themselves to a fresh set of bar cars, citing higher costs for the cars’ custom design.

 

“They’re being contemplated,” said Joseph F. Marie, Connecticut’s commissioner of transportation. “But we have not made any final decisions.”

 

Defenders of the boozy commute say it helps raise revenue: After expenses, bar cars and platform vendors made $1.5 million last year, up from $1.3 million in 2008. (Officials would not say if a bar car makes more money than a car with the normal number of seats.) So far, 300 new train cars have been purchased, featuring airline-style headrests and graceful luggage racks. But officials say the bar cars remain a low priority, and may not be ordered.

 

“A decision was made early on that more seats on the trains was our top priority and that bar cars — as popular as they are — could wait,” said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for Connecticut’s department of transportation, which operates New Haven Line trains in conjunction with Metro-North. “It was about that simple.”

 

The existing bar cars, much beloved for their homey wood paneling, cannot be operated with the new fleet, which is expected to be phased in starting at the end of this year.

 

That prospect did not go down well with the regulars on a recent weekday ride to Bridgeport.

 

“It raises my anxiety level,” said Tom Skinner, a marketing executive from Westport and proprietor of BarCar.com, a Web site devoted to the steel-wheeled saloon. “There’s always people trying to scuttle the bar cars. It’s just a fact of life.”

 

Smoking was banned on the cars in the 1980s, much to riders’ chagrin, but the diehards fought back against any attempt to end liquor service. The most recent threat, in 2007, would have banned alcohol from being sold on the trains and on platforms at Grand Central and Pennsylvania Station, but an outcry prompted officials to reject the proposal.

 

Full-fledged bar cars — complete with lounge-style leather seating, cupholders and stools — have been phased out on the Long Island Rail Road (although bartending carts are occasionally wheeled onto trains during the evening rush), and Metro-North trains to much of Westchester County and other points upstate no longer offer the amenity. (Even Ossining, home to Don Draper, is out of luck.)

 

Which makes Connecticut riders (and a few who get off before the border) all the more territorial about their rare perk.

 

More Here

 

I'm surprised no one else posted this.

[TheKorean]

Anyone actually rode barcar before? How was it? What was it like? How often did it run?

[M3 Express]

Anyone actually rode barcar before? How was it? What was it like? How often did it run?

 

Meh, I see it. It's okay. It's pretty much a bar setting.

 

I just see signs all over GCT about bar cars.

[Paul P]

Although I never rode it, the bar car is offered on select New Haven Line trains. Well, maybe they should just leave the Cosmos for the sake of the bar car?!

[Rutgers Tube]

Anyone actually rode barcar before? How was it? What was it like? How often did it run?

 

Depending on the time, day, season and any special events, the bar car is either not manned and simply used due to a demand for equipment, as part of a consist that will later feature active bar service or a mobile pig sty. I rarely see those on early a.m. runs, and they're generally dead cars towards the rear of the consist. And that car is usually there due to, again, a shortage of equipment, to move the set from one yard to another without having to make a non-revenue move, or just to disappoint the "thirsty" commuters first thing in the morning.

 

There are only a handful in active service (THANK GOD), they're generally absolute sh*thouses littered with trash, smells and obnoxious drunks, and I'll only ride one if the bar is closed or to walk through the consist to reach a car that open at a platform. Bar cars are strictly M2 stock, and they're unique because the only time two restrooms will be in an M2 pair is when one is an operating car and the other is the bar. Bar cars have restrooms exclusive to that car and are almost always in the center of a consist because of open doors on short platforms and (this is what I heard) to reduce the number of inebriated riders from walking between cars while a train is moving.

[TheKorean]

^Ah, so do they have their own bartenders and rinks to purchase?

[Joe]

I'd rather have a bar car running on rails than on roads...

[engineerboy6561]

I am deeply saddened by the loss of the bar cars as I am only 17 and will not be old enough to drink (and therefore to sit in one) until they are all gone. On a side note, how difficult/expensive would it be to design an M8 car that was a cross between the old M2 bar cars and the Acela cafe/bistros? That would be great. I ask because in terms of engineering it cannot be that much more difficult; the only major upgrades I could see the car needing would be a stronger electrical system to power refrigerators and other cafe equipment, with perhaps larger water storage and chemical retention tanks at the bottom to handle the sink, the icemaker, and perhaps a dishwasher to deal with dirty glassware. This in turn would probably necessitate a stronger traction motor array to haul the extra weight without having a slight push-pull effect and velocity drop.

As daunting as that sounds, I don't believe that it would be that much more expensive to build than a traditional bar car. I figure it would probably be $10-20,000 more per car for the bar equipment if you went all out, but then again you would probably also save at least a few hundred to a thousand dollars per car on the 3-2 seats that are on all the other Metro-North cars. I don't know whether Kawasaki would charge for building a slightly stronger propulsion system into the bar cars, but I still feel that the additional cost per car would be dwarfed by the $1.5 million per year in revenue they bring in plus the comfort they bring to passengers.

[gregorygrice]

I remember seeing plans for M8 bar cars a while ag. I'l try and find a link.

[lilbluefoxie]

personally im kinda glad we dont have this on Long Island, the late evening "vomit comet" trains already have a rep for having drunks, if you give em more booze as soon as they get off the train they are going to try to drive home drunk and cause accidents

[Y2Julio]

They still sell booze at vendor booths at GCT so you can still get wasted before you board your train.

[Forest Glen]

Anyone actually rode barcar before? How was it? What was it like? How often did it run?

 

I didn't ride it, but here's two pics:

 

 

[engineerboy6561]

Those cars look beautiful. I will admit they are a bit less airy than the Acela cafe cars but they definitely have a more homey atmosphere. I wouldn't ride there just to get drunk (you can do that pretty much anywhere with enough money and a fake ID, and besides it would be a tremendous waste of the experience), but I would feel a lot more comfortable talking with a group of friends or socializing period in a bar car than on one of the regular cars.

As to the "vomit comet" comment about LIRR I understand your point but the presence/absence of a bar car really won't affect the drunkenness issue. If the more troublesome clientele really want to get drunk they won't be discouraged by the lack of a bar car; they will simply bring liquor on board with them in a bag of some form and just get plastered in the bathroom. Besides, the bar car will give them a place to pass out without disturbing any of the other customers, and it's better for bar staff to boot them off the train if they get too rowdy than for an ordinary conductor to have to cope with them.

[Rutgers Tube]

I'd rather have a bar car running on rails than on roads...

 

You're right about that. Unfortunately, it's what emerges from the car that then takes to the roads that cause some real problems. Then again, people will do what they want to do, where they want to do it, when they want to do it, how they want it done, without having to explain just whythey want to do it to whomever that they do it with. Passenger cars are some of the biggest disasters going come Friday nights, on the last trains out GCT on the weekends and during the holidays and after popular events. Cans, cups, paper, wrappers and all sorts of assorted junk everywhere, half-eaten meals, three weeks' worth of mail and whatever else people felt compelled to throw on the floor. Ironically, those are the same exact people who piss and moan to no end about how the trains are old, falling apart, expensive and "dirty."

 

The only aspects about the bar cars that I enjoy are the trips without concessions being sort where I can put my laptop up on the counter (provided that it's not sticky) and the multiple trash receptacles that I wish the passenger railcars had the room for.

[St Louis Car 09]

 

Anyone actually rode barcar before? How was it? What was it like? How often did it run?

It rides like any car,just with a cheesy 70`s bar setting.Nothing glamourous to look at.

[Rutgers Tube]

It rides like any car,just with a cheesy 70`s bar setting.Nothing glamourous to look at.

 

Between the rainforest or whatever the hell it is and bamboo wallpaper, those cars look like a cross between a Bronx Zoo exhibit and the Regal Beagal bar from Three's Company.

 

If anyone has a picture of what the bar cars looked like when they first entered service, I'd be interested in seeing that.

[St Louis Car 09]

Between the rainforest or whatever the hell it is and bamboo wallpaper, those cars look like a cross between a Bronx Zoo exhibit and the Regal Beagal bar from Three's Company.

 

If anyone has a picture of what the bar cars looked like when they first entered service, I'd be interested in seeing that.

LOL Reagal beagal.Thats true.

[Forest Glen]

The bar cars will continue to operate:

 

http://www.1010wins.com/Cheers--Connecticut-Says-Train--Bar-Cars--Will-Sta/6886456

[St Louis Car 09]

The bar cars will continue to operate:

 

http://www.1010wins.com/Cheers--Connecticut-Says-Train--Bar-Cars--Will-Sta/6886456

Wow. if thats the case,I wonder how an M8 bar car would look?

[Rutgers Tube]

Wow. if thats the case,I wonder how an M8 bar car would look?

 

Only as nice as commuters/riders will allow it to look.

[Joe]

Only as nice as commuters/riders will allow it to look.

 

Such is the rule for all public facilities.

[Rutgers Tube]

Such is the rule for all public facilities.

 

And yet, you would think that it ISN'T the rule for some of these peoples' own homes.

[traildriver]

I remember when the LIRR had those full-length former B&M bar cars in the 1960's. The smoke was so thick in them that you'd almost need a gas mask to pass thru them. However, they provided 'breakfast' in the morning commute consisting of coffee and doughnuts, etc.

[Murjax]

Wow. if thats the case,I wonder how an M8 bar car would look?

 

Hopefully it would be a multipurpose cafe car as mentioned earlier as opposed to just a bar car. Think about how many commuters would love to eat breakfast on their way to work without having to stop to get it on the way.

[St Louis Car 09]

 

Hopefully it would be a multipurpose cafe car as mentioned earlier as opposed to just a bar car. Think about how many commuters would love to eat breakfast on their way to work without having to stop to get it on the way.

True.A nice continental breakfast would do.