Farewell to the Bar Car?

It’s practically a journalistic tradition: The New York Times has a new article about the “bar car,” the car on the Metro-North Railroad out of Grand Central Station that has, well, a bar on it. The bar car has often been in trouble, with various legislators and budget cuts threatening to close it—and the New York papers reporting each step along the way—but this time, it could be for real: Officials who ordered a new set of commuter cars have not yet purchased new bar cars, which require a special design. “A decision was made early on that more seats on the trains was our top priority and that bar cars—as popular as they are—could wait,” said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for Connecticut’s department of transportation. Fans of the bar car point out that it raises extra revenue—$1.5 million in 2009.