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No more 'bar cars' on train to NYC
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Steve Chiotakis: One of New York City's main commuter railroads is buying new train cars. But they can't link up with the nation's 10 remaining so-called "bar cars" that have ridden those tracks for years. So stockbrokers ordering booze on the ride home may soon be a thing of the past. Jill Barshay reports.
Jill Barshay: Joanna Solano is mixing a vodka tonic. She tends bar on the Metro North line between New York City and Stamford, Conn. She says the people in the bar car are like a family.
Joanna Solano: Mostly stock, people from Wall Street, advertising, marketing. Hard day at work, stress at work, this is happy hour for them.
But the states of Connecticut and New York are calling last orders. Marjorie Anders from Metro North Railroad says the state legislatures didn't fund enough regular cars for all the commuters.
Marjorie Anders: We have a lot of people who need a seat more than they need a bar car. So if we get enough cars out there so that we can satisfy our customers, then maybe we'll have time to think about ordering some bar cars.
Anders says commuters will still be able order booze from Metro North's concession stands on the platform and take the drink aboard.
In New York, I'm Jill Barshay for Marketplace.
Absent a bar car, Metro North could adopt the practice of passenger rail operators in Japan, England, Poland, and elsewhere: butchers with rolling carts, working the train, selling sandwiches, snacks, and beverages, including wine, beer, and liquor to passengers at their seats.
I'm facsinated by the story line. I used to commute and one thing I almost never did was ride in the Bar Car. As you entered the bar car you had the feeling that you had entered a cross between a middle-eastern opium den and a used car from a 1964 World's Fair ride. The atmosphere was thick with smoke, the far end of the car barely visible; the floor was cluttered with newspapers and empty beer cups; the decor was Retro Plastic Faded Curvilinear. The denizens were loud and either clustered around one of the poles, which had cup holders at elbow height, or crowding into the bar area to get served. It seemed to me that they were the least likely cars to have functioning air conditioning in the summer. I entered only to reach the desert oasis on the far side of the doors at the opposite end.
