They appear to be from a different age!
Rolling Bar Cars in the middle of afternoon-rush-hour METRA Commuter Trains, radiating to Chicago Suburbs around quitting time!
I worked at a Downtown Chicago Ad Agency BRE (Before Real Estate), and, years ago, knew these bar cars all too well, often to my regret the following morning. (METRA also had Smoker Cars as well, but these are very long gone!)
Both were rowdy, jovial places where folks can enjoy a cocktail, bottle of beer, or glass of wine, or two or three, before heading home to their families and children.
Sounds like a scene from that AMC TV Series Mad Men, doesn't it? In that show, New York Ad Execs from the early 1960's spend their workdays heavily drinking and smoking, yet still turn out a strong creative product. The characters were a few years removed from the dangers of excessive drinking and the health hazards of smoking, I guess.
Effective this Friday, however, the METRA Chicago Commuter Rail Traveling Taverns will make their last call, as the transit agency will pull Bar Cars from the remaining ten afternoon trains on which they appear.
Fret not, those of you who like to imbibe on a moving train. It will still be legal for adults of age to carry on a cocktail purchased at Union or Northwestern Station downtown, or at establishment near any commuter rail station in Chicago or the suburbs. You just won't be able to PURCHASE the beverage on the train.
There appears two reasons for the Bar Cars reaching the end of the line.
First, METRA officials are becoming increasingly concerned that some riders enjoy a few while commuting, then become impaired drivers when they hop in their cars for the final ride home at their destination stop.
Second has to do with pure space available for passengers. Removing the bar car, they feel, could free up space for additional train passengers, as ridership on METRA Trains, Chicago Transit Authority El cars, and buses have been surging as the price of gasoline around Chicago has climbed.
Also, the bar service has been set up in one car's vestibule, where the entry and exit doors to that car normally would have been located. Indeed, bar car patrons have to board the train in another car, and then change cars to get to the bar car. New Federal Safety Regulations require exit doors on all cars, and discourage changing cars while the train is moving.
After Friday, only New York City will offer traveling bar cars on a U.S. Commuter Railroad. Bar service will still be available on select commuter trains on the Long Island and Metro North commuter rail service there. A plan by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority that would have banned alcoholic beverages on trains has been dropped, for now.
Read our post today @ BlogChicagoHomes.com for more info, and a link to Richard Wronski's story in today's Chicago Tribune.
Salud!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
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