Call to De-Booze LIRR and Metro-North Rides

A train commute without a buzz? The MTA may look into banning alcohol sales on LIRR and Metro-North trains. The NY Sun reports MTA board member Mitchell Pally as saying, "They can have as many beers as they want as soon as they get home. I would prefer we don't let anyone drink alcohol on the train. If we're not ready to go that far … the least we can do is not make it easy for people to do it, which is, don't sell it."

The safety issue, according to Mr. Pally, is drunk driving when tipsy passengers head to their homes from train stations. Long Island Rail Road has been selling alcohol on platforms and aboard trains since the 1950s, and Metro-North has been serving it since 1976. No car accidents directly related to onboard drinking have been reported, and bartenders on the trains are not allowed to sell alcohol to passengers who seem to them to be inebriated.

The LIRR sells alcohol on platforms at Penn Station, Flatbush and Jamaica, plus on a few rush hour trains as well as trains to the Hamptons during the summer. Metro North sells alcohol at Grand Central platforms, plus on its New Haven line. A Metro-North spokeperson pointed out that people could bring drinks onto the train from elsewhere and that a ban would be "unenforceable."

Gothamist suspects that the MTA might be partly motivated to consider banning alcohol after it blamed teenager Natalie Smead's LIRR platform death on her drinking; while Smead was not sold alcohol by the MTA, you bet the MTA's lawyers wonder what would happen if someone fell in a platform gap after drinking a beer from an LIRR bar keep? And the Post spoke to an anonymous LIRR barkeep, "The way I see it, I keep families together. A guy has a drink on the train ride home, and his wife picks him up at the station. Otherwise, he'd be driving around Long Island from bar to bar."

Photograph of LIRR train car by ranjit on Flirckr (check out the actual shot - it's very beautiful)

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on December 7, 2006 2:10 PM

Comments [rss]

stewart

I hope they're not serving any transfats on the trains because that would be really dangerous.

Toby

There are many establishements in both Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal that sell take out beer, of which most of it gets consumed on NJ Transit, LIRR, and Metro-North trains.

The ban is not enforcable, and I have seen presumably off duty Metro-North employees with bagged beer on a few late night trains out of GCT.

ed_Extinct

^^^ ha ha ha you gut-busting republican ;P nah nah!!!!

you still suck

If you do not believe NYC is the center of the world, don't read a website called "Gothamist". Now go rush to get that train, just don't be too drunk when you pile into your gas guzzling SUV.

I live here and I don't a car or SUV. Want to try again? I'm mildly surprised you didn't try to call me a Republican.

NYC is...

Dear you suck,

If you do not believe NYC is the center of the world, don't read a website called "Gothamist". Now go rush to get that train, just don't be too drunk when you pile into your gas guzzling SUV.

nick

yeah man. after all this petty douchebaggery, i could really use some Drank.

Sam

Time to break out the flask.

nick

alright. we've had the "anyone who doesn't live in manhattan is suburban dolt" and the "transplant" comeback...

i think this thread is ready to be wrapped up!

fishtale

the details are irrelevant-- the point is that Sub-urban is probably an outta-towner who (with mommy and daddy's help) moved to NY after finishing college and now lives in Gramercy Park. Sub-urban makes disparaging comments like this as a defense mechanism to try and ignore the fact that they are ashamed of their cookie cutter exurb past in middle America. Now that they're in the big city, they are somebody! They're a New Yorker!

MTA

oh. and those beverages are only meant to be consumed via Goblet.

MTA

Drank is permitted, but only if it's mixed an "urban" lemon lime soda, like sprite remix.

Classic syrup (grape soda+codeine cough syrup) is always welcome, too.

chicagomatty

So no word yet if drank is allowed.

metaphorically speaking

hey #10...theres a town on LI called Hicksville. Its a stop on the LIRR....

Yeah, I'm aware of that but somehow I think the other poster meant a little more than that.

jg

dear you suck,

personally, I'd rather catch the train to hicksville than greenwich.

K

hey #10...theres a town on LI called Hicksville. Its a stop on the LIRR....

Tom

So let me get this straight... 56 years of alcohol on train rides without one car accident directly related to it. One idiot falls in a train gap and we have to ban alcohol?

Ugh, when someone be brave enough to say "accidents happen."

roseanne barrcar

If they cut this, bring back the smoking car.

you suck

This is not fair!!! How will the sub-urbanites face their pathetic lives if they can't have a few nips on the doldrum local to Hicksville!

When did Greenwich and Chappaqua become Hicksville?

You're another retard that must keep repeating the mantra that New York is the center of the universe because you know if you stop saying it it might not be true.

ed_Extinct

this is not a drunk driving issue in the least—for godsake the suburbs all have bars with parking lots...

this method is safer... working class folk coming from a hard day at office, kick back on the train with a 1 or 2 brews and then pass out 'till they have to get off at their stop...

---

now, if the MTA put a service fee on the bridge and tunnel hooligans coming into the city, that would make more sense.

chicagomatty

I wonder if I can still drink the DRANK which is a combination of robotussin, 7-up, ecstacy and sometimes courvassier or bourbon. It's popular in the dirty south hip hop circles I run with.