(The following article by Monifa Thomas and Lisa Donovan was posted on the Chicago Sun-Times website on February 16.)
CHICAGO — It’s almost last call for happy hour on Metra.
The bar cars on Metra trains are being phased out over the next two years.
The cars — which serve alcohol, snacks and other refreshments — are currently available on three of the commuter rail agency’s 11 lines.
Metra made the decision because of weak profits and a desire to add capacity on its trains, Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.
“It’s minimal revenue that isn’t worth taking up the additional seating,” Pardonnet said. “We wanted to utilize the full capacity of every car.”
Other U.S. commuter rail agencies already have cut bar cars, and New York’s Long Island Rail Road Metro-North lines could be next amid concern that overserved commuters might drive home from stations drunk.
On Metra’s Milwaukee North line to Fox Lake, six bar cars are dedicated to the route. The Milwaukee West to Elgin has two and the Rock Island to Joliet has four.
As news of the bar cars’ fate spread Thursday, it was something of an Irish wake aboard the 5:12 p.m. Milwaukee North train.
“This is where people meet. If there wasn’t this community we wouldn’t know each other,” said Fox Lake’s Rich Lipinski, 64, an Old Style drinker who has been riding in the bar car from his downtown job for more than 20 years.
Riders reminisced about friends who met in the car and later married, about the Super Bowl parties that got planned for the homes of new friends and about the Christmas gift exchange.
“For people who commute a lot, like I do, this is their social life,” said Keith Grimes, who runs the ROTC program at Whitney Young High.
Booze on board still OK
Mike Morman, 59, a Loop construction worker who lives in Fox Lake, and others wondered how their circle of friends will widen without the bar car and its chatty riders. He suspects it will be up to the passengers to carry on the tradition. “Now we’ll have to pick a car and we’ll make it the bar car,” he said.
Sharon Walsh, 38, of Round Lake Beach, has tended bar on this train for the last 18 months. Might as well make some money on the way home from her condo management agency job, she figured.
“When I get home, I don’t have anything to gripe about to my boyfriend, because I’ve already been griping on the train,” she said.
The cars are being taken out of service as Metra, which saw its highest ridership ever in 2006, replaces aging cars with new ones.
Riders still will be able to buy beverages in station depots and take them on board — except for days like New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day and Taste of Chicago days when alcohol is prohibited.