Changes to the bar car layout have commuters up in arms. Click the image to enlarge.
Don’t mess with Metro-North rider’ bar car. That’s the message they’re trying to send to the commuter railroad as it gears up for a new rolling stock purchase. It might be a message that fails on deaf ears though as the agency is planning to introduce a newly designed bar car as well as double-decker trains on some of its more popular routes.
The seven new bar cars will be put in place along the New Haven Line and are part of a $226-million, 300-car order of new rolling stock. The design, though, has raised some eyebrows among the bar car regulars as Andrew Grossman reports in the Wall Street Journal:
They’re worried, though, about the proposed design. It includes three rows of seats, four banquette-style tables and three round tables in the middle of the car. That will leave far less standing space than on the current set of cars. “We want to stand around and talk, and not be sitting in tiny little groups of four,” said Terri Cronin, the vice chair of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, which has been surveying passengers about the new designs…
Bar cars—or cafe cars in the language of the railroad—are one of the few parts of the railroad that actually make money. They generated over $500,000 in profits last year. “It’s like a big group party,” Ms. Cronin said. “You end up talking to all these people you never would have talked to if you were sitting in all these little social pods everywhere.” Ms. Cronin and other passengers say they don’t want to get stuck in small groups at tables. They’d rather mingle. Ms. Cronin said that’s how she’s met business contacts and made good friends in the bar car.
Officials from Metro-North and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which pays for the cars, say they’ve shown the designs to focus groups, where some riders had complaints similar to Ms. Cronin’s. But the railroad is trying to squeeze as many seats as it can out of the bar cars, since the new passenger cars each have nine fewer seats than the ones they’re replacing. “It’s an ongoing balancing act,” said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the Connecticut transportation agency. “We’re trying to maximize seating wherever we can, while at the same time providing the convenience of the cafe cars.”
The new bar cars won’t hit the rails until 2012 at the earliest, so Ms. Cronin and her drinking buddies have a few more years of socializing before the small groups take over their hallowed drinking grounds. The beer will always be cold.
Meanwhile, in an effort to combat overcrowding on the Harlem and Hudson Lines, Metro-North is looking into double-decker train cars, Michael Grynbaum of The Times reported today. The two-level cars, he says, cost the same as the standard ones and can fit 33 percent more passengers. These cars, which would enter service in 2015, would be designed to fit the clearance at Grand Central.
Metro-North says these two lines are “nearing capacity” out of Grand Central Terminal, and a bi-level car would allow for expansion without increasing train frequency. The city’s other commuter rail lines — the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit — have been running double-decker cars since 1998 and 2005 respectively, and commuters love them for the space and the upper-level views. “Customers love them for a number of reasons,” New Jersey Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said to Grynbaum. “They are quieter, and you have more leg room. It’s been overwhelmingly positive.”
8 comments
I’ve ridden LIRR’s double deckers out of Jamaica. They are quite comfortable.
NJT has ordered 100 aditional double decker cars over there origional 329 car purchase.
Is is still true that LIRR’s double-deckers cannot go all the way to Penn Station?
It’s strange that double-deckers from New Jersey can squeeze into Penn Station, but coming from the other direction they can’t.
Yes that is correct for the LIRR.
The standerd designed double deckers on most North American railroads like Metrolink or GO transit cant fit through the tunnels entering Penn Station. The cars NJT ordered are beveled in such a way that they can fit through without scraping the tunnels walls or crown.
Read the linked article from the Times for aditional details.
There are a few misconceptions here about LIRR’s double-deckers.
First, to Jerrold’s point, no, it’s not true – these cars can and do go to Penn Station. However, these cars require a locomotive, and diesel-only loco’s can’t go to Penn. Unlike the regular M3 and M7 cars, which have their own propulsion built-in beneath the passenger area (similar to subways), this gets displaced by the “downstairs” seating areas. Therefore, it needs a locomotive (or two, depending on the length/weight of the train) to move it. When Grynbaum says the cars cost the same as the “regular” cars, he’s probably not considering the need for a separate locomotive.
Some LIRR locomotives are diesel only — those aren’t permitted in the tunnels or Penn Station. Others are dual-mode; they can be switched from diesel to 3rd-rail electric and vice-versa. Unfortunately, the current stock breaks down often.
Are they more comfortable than the standard cars? The elimination of a “middle seat” (there are two seats on either side of the aisle, rather than 2 on one and 3 on the other) may make it so. Because there is no propulsion built in, they are noticeably quieter, however the ride is not as smooth. From a quality standpoint, the air-conditioners have two settings: “off” and “freeze”, and conductors need to turn them on and off periodically to try to make passengers comfortable. The static-filled PA system sounds like the subways of years ago. Personally, I find the seatbacks too rigid and upright, compared wit the more comfortable M-7’s.
Operationally, LIRR only uses the double-deckers on trains that go into non-electric territory and require a diesel locomotive. I forget if they were advertised as relieving crowds, but they are never used for that reason, and furthermore they can’t fit under the overpasses on the Pt. Washington line (which includes the Mets-Willets Point stop). So the “glowing reviews” given to LIRRs stock are greatly overstated. (By contrast, the only complaint about NJ Transit’s double-deckers is a small vestibule. They do use them to mitigate crowding, and you’ll often see them used to serve Devils games at Prudential Center and I’d imagine for football games at the New Meadowlands Stadium.)
There exist bilevel EMUs, for examples the E1 and E4 Series Shinkansen and the X40 in Sweden. On the RER, they went one step further and introduced three-door bilevel EMUs, to allow both increased seating capacity and fast boarding and alighting.
Have only traveled in the NJT double deckers in the Northeast – found them most pleasant and quieter than almost any other (non self propelled) commuter cars in which I’ve ridden. Have only visited in the summers since they went into use, and was thankful for the “freeze” AC. Far superior to Chicago’s and SF’s “gallery” double deckers.
Personally I’ve found the RER A trains the most pleasant of all; they juggle seating space, boarding capacity, and total train height well, and are far more comfortable than the older, non-air-conditioned single-level RER trains.
I find NJT’s double-deckers (or multi-levels as they call them) to be the most comfortable of NJT’s fleet right now. They ride smoother, are quieter, don’t suffer from the jerking forward-back motion of the single level fleet. Unfortunately, the ALP-46 locomotives (the newest NJT electrics) shut down during the heat wave this summer, so many a multi-level rider was inconvenienced. Though this is no fault of the cars themselves.
Interesting note, the NJT multi-levels can actually be coupled to single level cars (though fortunately they don’t run them this way).