Bar Cars on New Haven Metro

n97 mini

Can you imagine how enjoyable the trip home after a long day's work would be one of these. This kind of USP seems to be unknown to IE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afup7eRhz4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afup7eRhz4o

The good news is the bar cars that were withdrawn in 2014 have been refurbished and are back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTePh9OQ7ow

Del2005

Bar car meh, we've shooting up buses and trams.

Del.Monte

My homeward commute from Connolly to Bray used to be like that - and better - back in pre-DART days. A couple of pints in Grainger's (opp.Connolly) and then more beer in the dining car of the Down Rosslare. Even when they downgraded the dining car to just one end of a Park Royal with a bar it was still mighty crack - like a club car with the same regulars every day.

dowlingm

With the advent of the M8 EMUs, bar cars disappeared from the MetroNorth/CTDOT New Haven Line. Recently it was announced that Kawasaki are to build a follow on order of M8s, with 10 bar cars. I suspect that when all is said and done those cars will be backloaded to the tail of the order, and then converted back to coaches because MetroNorth will claim they are needed due overcrowding because they just don't want the hassle and New York commuters care less than Connecticut ones.

As for bars as a USP, the inability of a small but annoying minority to hold their drink has already gotten drink restricted on Waterford line.

n97 mini

dowlingm wrote: »

As for bars as a USP, the inability of a small but annoying minority to hold their drink has already gotten drink restricted on Waterford line.

Aye, but that's stags and hens.

Commuters on a journey lasting maximum 90 mins are a different kettle of fish.

Del2005

n97 mini wrote: »

Aye, but that's stags and hens.

Commuters on a journey lasting maximum 90 mins are a different kettle of fish.

In a proper country, here we punish the majority in case of offending the guilty.

tabbey

New York to New Haven is about 80 miles, it is not unreasonable to provide some sort of catering on such a train.
It is roughly equivalent to Dublin - Enniscorthy, Thurles, Kilkenny, Longford & Athlone. It would be nice for commuters on such trains to have a drink, in a dedicatedvehicle.

The problem is that a certain type of individual, commonly found in Ireland, will abuse such a facility.

If a bar car was introduced with a strictly controlled access policy, ie, anybody making a nuisance would be barred, with the co-operation of well behaved regulars, it could work, to the enjoyment of many decent passengers.

Years ago it was a feature of Irish mainline trains,and encouraged many people to patronise rail services.

Jem72

Most long-distance commuters have to drive from the station to their home so a bar car is of little use. There is also the matter of them being totally impractical on railcars costing 2 million euro each where half the car is taken up with the serving area.

A little imagination would go a long way - a reasonably decent coffee machine like the Costa machines in garages would do a roaring trade on long-distance commuter services. It might even be feasible to fit an airline style galley and serve reheated meals without needing to take up half a carriage.

But with trains packed to the rafters and limited scope to increase train lengths, Irish Rail have little incentive to provide a better service.

n97 mini

The thing about a bar car is people are happy to stand. They don't mind being packed in (look at the videos).

This has the knock-on effect that it frees up space in the rest of the train (mentioned in the video), and additionally if alcohol consumption is restricted to the bar car it's not a nuisance to other commuters.

I do agree though that coffee vending machines, but in stations, would probably do very well.

MGWR

dowlingm wrote: »

With the advent of the M8 EMUs, bar cars disappeared from the MetroNorth/CTDOT New Haven Line. Recently it was announced that Kawasaki are to build a follow on order of M8s, with 10 bar cars. I suspect that when all is said and done those cars will be backloaded to the tail of the order, and then converted back to coaches because MetroNorth will claim they are needed due overcrowding because they just don't want the hassle and New York commuters care less than Connecticut ones.

As for bars as a USP, the inability of a small but annoying minority to hold their drink has already gotten drink restricted on Waterford line.

It's up to the state government of Connecticut, not Metro-North, whether or not there are bar cars on the trains. The dual-system EMUs have some separate ownership, some being owned by the NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority but most owned by Connecticut with Metro-North running the service as a contract operator.

If Metro-North takes over the former New Haven RR commuter service to Old Saybrook and New London (Amtrak currently runs it under contract to Connecticut DoT), and even goes so far as to run trains from Manhattan to those destinations as a peak service, then bar cars become a bit more significant too.

The Long Island Rail Road still runs some limited bar service on trains running on the Montauk Branch, but they are reserved rather than first come, first served.

dowlingm

MGWR, what I've heard (which could be wrong) is that MetroNorth have no interest in taking over Shoreline East as it could introduce some labour relations issues. While you are correct that CTDOT own the M8s they are operated in a shared fleet with MetroNorth, over MetroNorth's trackage within NY, by MetroNorth employees. It is a partnership but MN definitely holds a whip hand. After all, the *current* M8s were made 25kV capable to operate east of New Haven and apart from test trains that hasn't happened.