Last call for Metro-North bar cars

The last call for Metro-North”™s bar cars sounded Friday, when the last train with bar service was retired from the New Haven Line fleet.

Metro-North had bar cars in use for four decades. The feature was once popular with the “Mad Men”-era set commuting from Grand Central Terminal, but bar cars became an oddity in recent years despite a small group of enthusiastic supporters. One website, Where”™s the Bar Car?, listed the departure times of bar-car trains on the New Haven Line.

The Metro-North was likely the last commuter rail line in the country that still had trains with bar cars. The last four bar cars were phased out as the railroad replaced older trains with more modern counterparts.

The last bar-car train was Friday’s 7:34 p.m. departure from Grand Central to New Haven, according to The New York Times, which featured a story documenting the last boozy commute in the faux-wood paneled pseudo lounge.