Metra Says So Long to its Rail Saloons

[MrFSS]

The commuter rail line has decided to shut down its rolling taverns, ending an era that hearkens back to the days when executives in gray flannel suits climbed aboard club cars and lubricated the journey home with martinis.

There are 10 trains with bar cars running on Metra's Rock Island and Milwaukee District West and North lines. There were more refreshment cars years ago, but Metra has been phasing them out as contracts with vendors expired.

Full story HERE.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Sad.

 

[zoltan]

This reminds me of the atmosphere of the cafe car on Amtrak's downeaster on the two evening peak trips out of Boston North Station, and having pooled a few opinions on the service while riding, I can definitely say that it's a big reason that people choose the train over the faster, cheaper buses on the route.

Metra are doing the same short sighted thing as British railway companies, and taking away amenities that attract passengers to the service to make a little extra capacity on the service; thereby damaging passenger goodwill in order to put off the need to seriously invest in extra capacity for just a few more years. Both Metra and Cross Country, Great Western, etc. in Britain, would benefit their ticket sales and the congestion on neighboring roads most by facing the challenge of growing demand for rail transport head on, which maintaining the amenities that partly fuel this demand.

Commuter rail can never match the beloved automobile for comfort and convenience, and the bar car strikes me as one of the best ways I've ever seen of combating this fact.

 

[twoaday]

Although I've never had the pleasure to hang out in the tavern car of a Metra train I believe this is a sad day. To some this car may of become a sort of a "third place" for them, where people who would of never met came together and shared community. It also seems to be an end of an era...