Panel to Meet on MTA Alcohol Policy

By Jennifer Maloney, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Feb. 6–A Metropolitan Transportation Authority task force will meet for the first time this month to reconsider a policy of selling alcohol on platforms and trains of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, according to the MTA.

A timeline for the task force’s review has not yet been set, said MTA spokesman Sam Zambuto. In December, MTA chairman Peter Kalikow said he expected the group’s recommendations no sooner than April 1.

“They plan to research the issue thoroughly,” Zambuto said.

The task force will be made up of MTA board member Barry Feinstein, the chairman, and board members James Sedore, Francis Powers and Andrew Albert.

Metro-North operates 16 bar carts at Grand Central Terminal and opens up to nine bar cars from noon to 9:07 p.m. weekdays on its New Haven line.

The LIRR operates 12 bar carts on the platforms at Penn, Flatbush Avenue and Jamaica stations during the evening rush hour. It offers on-board bar carts on two daily evening trains departing from Penn Station. During the summer, the LIRR operates bar carts at Hunters Point Avenue and provides at-seat beverage service on two Hamptons reserve cars.

The LIRR makes an annual profit of $325,000 from its bar carts, which also sell soft drinks, juice and snacks, LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan said.

LIRR employees who operate the LIRR’s bar carts check the ID of passengers ordering alcohol, McGowan said. The employees also receive training on when to cut off beverages to passengers who have had too much to drink, she said.

The LIRR began operating bar cars in the 1960s and in the early ’70s had bar cars on the Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay and Port Washington lines, as well as trains to Greenport.

The railroad reduced those bar cars over the years and phased them out completely in 1999, McGowan said.

Last August, an 18-year-old Minnesota tourist who had been drinking on an LIRR train was killed after she fell through a gap at the Woodside station and crawled in front of an oncoming train. She did not purchase alcohol from the MTA.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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