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Metro-North Commuters Petition To Get 'Beloved' Bar Carts Back

Metro-North’s move to take their Grand Central Terminal bar carts temporarily out of commission while authorities probe reports of missing money apparently left a lot of commuters feeling high and dry.

Metro North's bar cars went the way of the dodo bird in 2014. Now commuters are all in a tizzy over the removal of bar CARTS in Grand Central Station. The booze commissary stations have  been sidelined while a probe of missing money is under way.

Metro North's bar cars went the way of the dodo bird in 2014. Now commuters are all in a tizzy over the removal of bar CARTS in Grand Central Station. The booze commissary stations have been sidelined while a probe of missing money is under way.

Photo Credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York

An online petition is being circulated, asking the MTA, the commuter rail service and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to bring them back.

According to a report by lohud.com, 18 commissary carts, which sell beer and harder booze on the platforms, were taken out of service after a spot audit uncovered the monetary discrepancy.

The MTA’s inspector general, Barry Kluger, told lohud.com that a full-scale investigation is under way.

No criminal charges have been filed, but several employees have been suspended, the lohud.com story said.

The petition is illustrated with a photo from the hit TV series, “Mad Men,” set on Madison Avenue in the 1960s, which were, culturally, part of the decade before.

It was an era of three-martini lunches and everyone at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency never seemed to be far from a drink … or a hangover.

The petition, which calls the bar carts “beloved” and “vital to the New York commuter experience,” claims that their closure is “a crime against the hard working adults who depend on your trains to get to and from the city.”

“It’s reported that your riders can live with the lack of wifi and seats, but not the lack of beer,” the petitioners say.

The signers also said they realized that Metro North had “reason to suspect that a few rogue cart tenders pilfered funds or goods.”

While fully supporting an investigation, petitioners said they want the bar carts back – like now, specifically by Monday, Dec. 19.

“You may recall Governor Christie's Bridgegate. This scandal required a broad investigation but nobody would have supported the closing of the GWB,” the petition said.

Bar cars, as opposed to the bar carts, went the way of the dodo bird in 2014, apparently.

(The dodo was a very large bird that was unable to fly. It is now extinct. Today, there is only one place you can view actual preserved dodo remains – at Oxford University in England.)

Bar cars were common during rail travel’s salad days before World War II.

However, the last of them were retired in 2014.

Metro-North replaced its 1970s-era cars now used by commuters from Manhattan to Connecticut, with the new M-8 cars between 2010 and 2015. The M-8 was designed by Ridgefield, Conn., train designer Cesar Vergara, who also provided a design for a modern bar car.

Viewing the bar cart petition isn’t as hard as getting to see the dodo mummified (not pickled) foot and head, just click here.

To read a related Daily Voice story, click here.

To read the lohud.com story, click here.

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