The brighter, airier M-8 train cars now make almost a third of the New Haven Line runs during the week, and about half of them during the weekend, Metro-North Railroad says.
So it makes sense that when I rode to Manhattan yesterday, I boarded one of the railroad’s newest cars in Larchmont, but took one of the old, grimier cars coming home.
The new trains make 31.1 percent of the runs Monday through Thursday, and slightly
fewer on Fridays, the railroad reports. Saturdays, they make 47.7 percent of the runs, and on Sundays they break the halfway mark, making 52.2 percent of the runs.
Those odds will increase as the railroad continues to receive the Kawaski built cars. As of May 8, Metro-North had rolled out 100 of the 405 that will eventually be in service.
The cars came out several years after the Hudson and Harlem line got their new generation of cars, the M-7s. (The M stands for “metropolitan,” by the way.) Part of the delay came because Connecticut, which pays for about two-thirds of the New Haven Line, didn’t want them at first.
So we in Westchester’s Long Island Sound shore area had to wait.
But then, I never minded the older cars, until I got to ride the new ones. Now I look forward to riding in that interior – bright red, off-white and light beige interior. Sometimes you even get that new-car smell.
It’s more pleasant than the old ones with the blood red-blue-beige color scheme that I suppose was in style at some point. But these cars have been around for decades. The grime has worked into the upholstery so deeply that it will never come out.
I ride to Manhattan four or five times a month, mostly on weekends, so I’ve ridden the M-8s a number of times. But only once have I ridden the M-8s both ways.
Eventually, that should become routine.
4 Comments
Um, Ken, while I enjoy your columns, the “M” does not stand for “Metropolitan”. While I can’t for certain state what the “M” stands for, the only cars known as “Metropolitan” were the M1 (LIRR) and M1A (Penn Central Hudson and Harlem). The first version of the car on the New Haven line, the M2, was the “Cosmopolitan. Later versions of these cars did not carry the designations.
Hi, Jeff. Thanks for the note. That was what the Metro-North spokeswoman told me a while back when I asked what the M stood for. I’ll check again tomorrow.
Ken, no worries. It was 40 years ago
! Some MNRR folks are unaware (it was two railroads before them), or they just like to spin yarns. I was 11 when they came out in 1972. Surprisingly, the Wiki articles are pretty decent on the cars.
I don’t like the new M8’s. The seats are closer together. The head rests are not comfortable. The seat backs are too straight up to relax for the 1 and 1/2 hour ride from GCS to Mfd. The seat colors are retarded, TAN will get filthy in a very short time. Some idiot made the five seaters into six seaters so now there’s a seat hanging out in the way next to each vestable, makes people flow difficult. The lighting is way over done especially on later trains when people would like some reduced lighting to relax in on the way home, Yes there is an outlet at each seat but NO cup holders. And my number one agrivation, “BING BONG” “anouncement” “BING BONG” more announcement. “BING BONG” repeat the announcement. VERY VERY VERY VERY ANNOYING. Leaving 125th street station in the morning, “BING BONG” “this is the train to Grand Central Station, The next stop is Grand Central Station”. Two minutes later, “BING BONG, the next station is Grand Central Station”. No really, didn’t you just say that two minutes ago? Thank you very much, the old cars are far more comfortable.
Richard Trenchard
commuter for the past 12 years