Metro-North Railroad officials are testing bike racks on the railroad’s newest rail cars, the M-8s, which are being rolled out on the New Haven Line. The agency had prototype hooks available for the public to try last week in New Haven and New York City, and the two train cars with hooks will run as part of select New Haven Line trains throughout the fall for further testing.
According to MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan, Metro-North will consider installing the bike racks in every M-8 car if the trial run is successful. However, “funding will have to be addressed in partnership with [ConnDOT,]” he said. The hooks would be compatible with the M-7 cars used on Metro-North’s Hudson and Harlem Lines, though funding would need to be identified for that initiative as well.
ConnDOT officials seem enthusiastic. In a release, ConnDOT Commissioner Jim Redeker said that “Adding bike racks on these new cars makes sense for a lot of commuters. We are committed to making the New Haven Line as bike friendly as possible.”
No changes are planned to the current policy of allowing bicycles only on off-peak trains. For more, see coverage from the Connecticut Post.
Good news and I hope the trial run is a success. I would point out that the bike securements on the new Siemens light rail vehicles for Hampton Roads Transit won’t accommodate a mountain bike (the metal channels are narrower than mountain bike tires), so some thought should be given to this going forward.
My god! It’s a bike rack on a train! How hard or expensive can this be?!?! Transit systems all over the Western World have bike racks on their trains without major problems. The Stadler DMU cars made in Germany that run on NJ TRANSIT’s RiverLINE came with the bike racks standard and they’ve worked great with hardly a hitch.
And cost?
When a train car cost several million, Metro-North is quipping about a couple stainless steel tubes that cost no more than $1000?!?!
Pullease!