Bar Car

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Mon 28 Apr 2008

Inflation Hits Bar Cars/Carts

Posted by TJ under Bar Car, Beer, Samuel Adams
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Metro-North is poised to hike up the price of a cocktail on both its bar cars and the carts stationed near the platforms in Grand Central. The railroad is “seeking approval from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board of directors to raise prices…to keep pace with inflation.”

Metro-North’s booze sales represented $607,000 in profit last year, approximately 63% of it from me.  Metro-North estimates it sells a million beers and 250,000 bags of chips in a year.

The MTA board will vote on the matter–a joint request between Metro-North and Long Islang Railroad–Wednesday, and the price hikes would go into effect May 8. Perhaps more daunting, the railroad is also “seeking authorization to raise prices each September at the rate of growth in the consumer price index… without seeking board approval.”   

The new price list would see a domestic beer jump from $2 to $2.50.  

 

Thu 15 Feb 2007

Bar Cars Hit End of Line

Posted by TJ under Bar Car
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Today’s Wall Street Journal laments the demise of the bar car (D4, Personal Journal). Rolling imbibers say it’s a crucial aspect of their social lives. The MTA says they’re scrapping them to make room for extra seating. I say keep the bar cars and add more regular cars to accommodate the extra ridership.

But who asked me?

Happy Hour on Rails May Sound Its Last Call

By Jennifer Saranow

For the past 20 years, Charles Lawrence has left his Manhattan office job in time for the New Haven line 6:04 p.m. or 8:04 p.m. train from Grand Central Terminal. There, the 50-year-old commercial real-estate broker from Fairfield, Conn., settles into the bar car, buys a beer and chats with other regulars.

Their latest topic of conversation isn’t just sports or business, but whether the train’s operator will eliminate the bar car itself. “It’s this sense of community that ties people together,” he says. “When there’s no bar, people will just disappear — take a seat and go home.”

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