f “rail saloon,” while Metra (the commuter railroad that connects Chicago to the surrounding suburbs) officially refers to them as “refreshment cars.”Yet to anyone who has actually used a Metra train, they were the “bar cars.”
SPECIFICALLY, THEY WERE the lone car located somewhere in the middle of a 10- to 12-car train that could not be entered from the outside because its’ entrance was blocked with a freezer that stocked beverages (both alcoholic and pop – I refuse to call it “soda”).
That car’s presence would allow people to purchase a drink to enjoy while enduring a commuter train ride home to a location on the outer edge of Chicago or one of its many suburbs.
Now these bar cars were not universal. I never saw them on the Metra Electric line trains that I rode for many years, although they did exist on the Rock Island line commuter trains connecting downtown to Joliet and on some other Metra lines I occasionally rode during my lifetime.
But after Friday, they will not exist anywhere.
THE TRIBUNE REPORTED that the cars were bringing in so little revenue that Metra officials have decided they can better use the space taken up by bar car patrons to seat passengers – many of whom are increasing their commuter train usage because the cost of gasoline remains ridiculously high (even if it is possible to find gas at just under $4 per gallon, if one looks intensely enough).
Now many people are going to label me a party pooper, but I must admit to not being upset that the bar cars are becoming an obsolete concept, just like the notion that Metra trains used to reserve one car (the one up front closest to the locomotive) for smokers of various tobacco products.
The bar cars never took on the raunchy stink that the smoking cars did, but the bar cars had their own unique aura.
They also contained one of the secrets to riding a Metra train during the rush hours. When other cars were crammed with people, there was always a good chance of getting a seat in the bar car – if one could push their way through the other cars to get to the bar car.
ONCE GETTING TO the bar car proper, one would often find that half the seats were empty – even though there were a significant number of people in the car.
That’s because the typical bar car patron wasn’t the least bit interested in sitting down. They wanted to stand around and drink, while babbling incoherently. They were also the kind of people who liked to stand around and clog up the aisles and make it impossible for people to get through – all so they could enjoy their brand of cheap, domestic beer.
And as the Tribune noted in a story it published this week about the demise of the bar cars, it often was the same people. If you could stand to be in their presence for up to an hour and a half (the length of a Metra train ride to the most distant of suburbs), then you could get a seat.
It the smell of cheap beer nauseated you, then you were stuck dealing with the overcrowded cars on the rest of a Metra commuter train.
AND THERE WAS one other drawback. That smell would linger for some time. If one was stuck working a few extra hours in downtown Chicago and had to take a late-evening train, one would often have to cope with the aroma (and occasionally, the rubbish) from the bar car crowd. It usually took an overnight airing out to fully clean out these rail cars.
Now for those people who are about to complain that it is an inconvenience to ride a train without some place to purchase overpriced refreshments, I have to say “get real.”
Every downtown Chicago train station that handles Metra commuter trains I have ever seen has several stands selling refreshments, including the same beer or pop that one would buy on board the train. It will still be possible to purchase something before getting on board.
The only thing that will change is the disappearance of the people who considered their train ride home a high point of their day by being able to buy a beer and clog up the aisles of the bar car by refusing to sit down.
NOW, THEY’LL HAVE to buy it in advance, and take a seat. Let’s just hope these people don’t get sloppy, and start spilling their beverages on the rest of us.
And if it means that in some cases, a person has to wait a bit until they get to their home neighborhood or suburb before having an after-work drink, that might be an improvement (although it appears that was not a concern of Metra when they decided to phase out bar cars).
It’s not like many of these rides are so long that one needs nourishment in order to survive. A commuter train ride home is not the equivalent of an Amtrak train ride to St. Louis, Memphis or Detroit, or even the St. Louis-bound train that makes downstate Illinois stops in Bloomington and Springfield (two train stops I am well acquainted with in my life).
Taking the train from downtown Chicago to the Statehouse in Springfield is made a tad more bearable by being able to get something to drink. Needing that same drink on board a commuter train to Joliet – that’s just a lack of self-discipline.
SO EXCUSE ME for thinking that the people who cluttered up the Chicago Tribune’s website comments section with accounts of how this represents the demise of Chicago’s character are being too melodramatic.
The loss of a bar car on board a Metra train isn’t the same as Marshall Fields’ department stores evolving into that symbol of New York shopping known as Macy’s. I’d hate to think Metra would start getting the same overly emotional people with nothing better to do with their lives all worked up because they can no longer buy a can of “Old Style” beer on board the train, but have to bring it on board with them for their ride home from work.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: I wonder how many of the hundreds of people who added their thoughts about the demise of “bar cars” (http://www.topix.net/forum/source/chicago-tribune/T60O4K3TFRI9CRI23) on board Metra commuter trains did so with work-related computers or on time that was supposed to be spent working.
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