Metro North Commuters Panicking Over End of Bar Car

as long as you can bring your own on the train still i don't see the big problem.

as for it being some racist/classist policy to allow drinking on metro north but not the subway, they are two very different kinds of transportation service. drinking is allowed on amtrak and most other passenger railroads i can think of. allowing drinking on the subway would be ridiculous.

This is a bummer. Due to this stupid economy, my company moved a bunch of us to Stamford from Midtown. The commute is god awful. The MTA sucks. Monthly commutes cost $265. It's not possible to replace the POS Metro North cars with new ones that include bar cars? Is it really that hard?

Also re: bar cars. Seems like everytime I get one of the trains that have them, it's Monday or Tuesday afternoon. Can't remember the last time there was one of Thursday or Friday.

Didn't realize the MTA was so flush with cash they could get rid of revenue streams like this.

wait a minute...i cant drink on the subway but if im on a metronorth train then its all good in the hood???

oh yeah, suburban white people get privleges while minority urban commuters get the shaft.

seriously?

obviously, you aren't aware that most metro north commuters are on the train an hour or longer- in addition, tickets are expensive. you can ride the subway for a month all you want for 89$. you could only get 4 round-trips a month only so far on the MTA for that money.

the type of folks riding these trains (you can interpret this as classist- go for it. it just shows your ignorance. i know people who's rent, MTA tickets and car insurance add up to your rent costs) have usually worked all day, are tired and aren't bothering anyone. plus they're confined to one car. have i experienced insane drunkeness on the MTA? yes. but they were wasted getting on the train from some broadway show and didn't drink during the ride. there was also no barcar. we can all attest to the obnoxiousness of tourists, no matter where they come from.

drinking in the subway? first off, subway riders don't respect the trains sober. you can ride them drunk, so what's the issue? you have to drink ON it too, in the 15-20 minute gap between your home and the bar? in london, they put an end to subway and bus drinking because people just don't know how to behave themselves. it's true pretty much across the board. your monthly would only get more expensive should they have to do even more cleaning, etc.

This is not a race issue, let's not make it one.

I hope you don't really think there isn't do you?

I know The Times thinks this is a big news story, but The Observer just investigated Bloomberg's offshore money. The Times is weak fluff news unworthy of any more Pulitzers.

I always wondered why the cops didn't hang out in the parking lot and randomly pull people over for sobriety tests when they get off the train and into their car...

Sure, some have someone picking them up, but I've known quite a few that didn't.

"I always wondered why the cops didn't hang out in the parking lot and randomly pull people over for sobriety tests when they get off the train and into their car.."

Same reason they don't hang out in bar parking lots and do the same thing: Courts have ruled that they can't. Simply leaving a bar doesn't establish cause for a traffic stop, so certainly getting off a train does not.

I've seen them do that all the time.

Near my college there were a few bars where the cops would all park right across the street and stop every car that left.

Yeah, I don't know where these commenters get their, I don't know, sense of actual civil rights being protected here. Cops are always outside bars waiting and following drivers home. Hell, it happened to me! - thank my lucky stars I purposely didn't partake for that very reason.

They'll look for any way to do their jobs easier; pulling over young, impressionable, easily scared/coerced kids from a bar is way easier that 30-50 yr old bourgeois with property taxes and the means for proper legal representation. 'Establishing cause'? Really? They can establish cause from anything.

Nothing in constitutional jurisprudence prevents cops from hanging out and then following drivers, though, since drivers have no reasonable expectation of privacy on roads. When the driver swerves over the yellow line, the lights start flashing. Happens in my old hometown all the time.

As I said. They can follow cars that leave either bar or railroad parking lots (or anywhere else), and wait for the driver to do something that provides cause to pull them over. The odds that a driver will do so may or may not be better than just waiting in any other location.

But that isn't what was suggested. The suggestion was randomly pull over cars that as they leave. The can not do that -- simply because it isn't random; it's focused on people who congregate in a particular location.

As a daily Metro North commuter, I can tell you that I've never really understood the bar car. Maybe I'm just experiencing it wrong (I take the train from GCT every morning), but when I see it there I walk past it. Maybe if it was in the later afternoon and I was with a bunch of friends and had enough time to go back inside and grab beers, but I think the vast majority of riders would rather have the extra seating.

As long as I'm able to drink a beer at my seat when I want to, I'm happy. I see co-workers doing it all the time, sitting across from each other. They seem fine to me.

During my occasional exiles to Connecticut, I've learned that the best option is to buy a whole bottle at "Grand Harvest". They cork it for you and supply plastic cups.

For those who think a whole bottle is a bit much, it's Connecticut you're going to, believe me, you'll need it!

If I learned anything from riding the Chinatown bus for as many years as I have (mom and dad reside in Boston) it's this: always bring booze. Sigg is my bottle of choice for its opacity and generous holding capacity.

I've carried everything from Sangria (fun!) to a simple vodka and soda with cranberry (to mask the tell-tale boozy odor). Makes for a much smoother ride.

Ugh. That photo makes me want to smack someone. Preferably, the woman in the red polka-dot dress.

I love my beer, and especially my G&Ts, but I can't imagine how it is legal for alcohol to be consumed on commuter trains — but not subway trains. I wonder if that train were, by the looks of that photo, 100% anything else (i.e., black, hispanic, asian) if the public and MTA would have the same alcohol policy.

It's the same blind-eye that's turned when people have open containers at the concert in the parks. As if classical music and cheese makes you less drunk.

When was the last time commuters shot each other in the bar car? Or have you ever heard of a 5-year-old girl getting shot at a classical music concert in the park? Maybe if certain segements of the population knew how to act civilized in public, the cops wouldn't keep busting them for drinking. Just sayin.'

I don't drink, haven't touched the stuff in years. But this is one more nice, unusual perk we used to have in NY that is being taken away. No candy machines in subways, no clean bathrooms, no phone booths with actual doors so you could have some privacy. Now the bar cars go the way of the Third Ave El. Another little bit of civilized life taken away. I miss the old town sometimes.

The 3rd Ave El? The hideous above ground travesty that was one block away from the Lex Ave line? Lets bemoan the loss of things that actually had a net positive effect on the City...

You're right about the woman in the red polka dot dress. She appears to be a major league drunk.

My Fellow Mobile-Drinking Enthusiasts,

I have been an avid Gothamist reader for some time, but until this day have never felt so compelled to register and comment. We need to save the bar car. Does anyone know of an ongoing petition about this?

Yours,

A Concerned Connecticutian

President, The CAN'D Foundation - Connecticutians Against Not Drinking

Facebook page:

SaveTheBarCar

https://twitter.com/Thebarcar

you might consider starting one and putting the web address on a flyer.. or just getting people to write a letter to here:

http://www.trainweb.org/ct/contacts.htm

i posted a bunch of links for you but gothamist censored me.

The bar cars do seem anachronistic, and even for the railroads themselves to be selling alcohol on the platforms is odd. But in general allowing it on the commuter trains isn't a big deal to me -- most of the time.

What I'd do if it were up to me is to ban alcohol on the trains between 8 pm and 6 am on Friday and Saturday nights. Those are the period when it almost always is a problem. Maybe a ban on Manhattan-bound trains between 8 and midnight, and on outbound trains from 11 to 6.

I'm very glad it's not up to you, and I don't even drink on the train.

As long as you can still buy a beer on the platform in grand central and bring it on the train, then it's all good.

Bring a flask?

Nothing more depressing than sitting next to a well dressed executive type on the Metro North / LIRR train while they go through a 6 pack of Bud Light in under 60 minutes.

Gotta smooth things over before they're forced to hang out with their nagging wife and bastard kids from 9pm - 10pm.

"wood paneled"??? Dude, that stuff is contact paper!

For the record, only the Connecticut bound trains still have bar cars. And quite frankly, they deserve to lose them for being cheap bastards: the (cheap-ass) state delayed funds for new cars for years, and now they are left with the skankiest old trains while riders on the Hudson and Harlem lines have swanky new ones (as do LIRR riders). The NY State folks along the NH line (New Rochelle, Rye, etc.) HATE those cheap republican CT morons for making them suffer those old trains.

On the Hudson line, only people who ride between Grand Central and Croton-Harmon have the new, clean train cars. Those of us who travel beyond that point are still stuck with the smelly, dirty cars.

i don't really care so long this isnt a step towards bringing police on board to start ticketing and arresting people the way they do on the subway. there are always flasks and paper bags...

on the one hand, it is a real treat that makes it the price you pay to commute to westchester worthwhile.

on the other hand - fuck you, ya buncha snooty fucks!

A rush hour commute to Connecticut without a drop of alcoholic to silence the voices in your head is enough to rile anyone up.

Somebody call Freud.

Whassup with the chick in the lower lefthand corner of that pic?

Well, the gentleman next to her is smiling... Nevermind, go ask your mother.