RailNews

Bar Cars Coming Back to New Haven Line

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced that the state would purchase an additional 60 M-8 electric m.u. railcars from Kawasaki, and that 10 of those cars would be bar cars. The last of the bar cars were retired in 2014 when the majority of the original M-2 fleet was junked. Metro-North Railroad operates the New Haven Line on behalf of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Connecticut has already purchased 405 of the M-8 rail cars, which began going into service in 2011 and are now standard on the New Haven Line. Most of the older M-2 rail cars have been retired, but a small fleet remain as backups.

The first Metro-North bar car should be ready to roll in the summer of 2018.  The M-8 rail cars cost $3.85 million each and the bar car modifications add another half million to the cost but the DOT says the profits from the beer, wine, soda, and snacks will cover the extra cost.

—Passenger Train Journal

This article was posted on: September 23, 2016