Commuter Rail Cars & Culture in Chicago
I was up in the 'burbs of Chicago this weekend, and I spent a lot of time on Metra, the commuter rail system there.
Why does this matter? It was "worn out" Metra cars that the Music City Star bought for $1 each to get Nashville's commuter rail system up and running, and I think Louisville would be lucky to get the same deal today, should it decide to do something similar along the P&L tracks.
These are huge cars - double deckers. The bottom deck is like a spacious city bus, with the usual places for disabled and bikes. The seats are comfortable vinyl, very clean. The seat backs are double-sided and can pivot so a passenger can face forward or backwards. The train doesn't turn around at the end of the line, so if you want to face forward, you flip the seat. Or if you're traveling in a group of 4, you can configure it so all four people sit in a square, like sitting in a booth at a restaurant.
The second deck is a double column of seats, one against each window. Closer to the center, there are huge luggage racks. The staircase going up is decidedly un-accessible, I think even some people who are non-disabled would have trouble with it, but that doesn't matter since most people can still get up, and there's a natural osmotic pressure to spread out people to an even density. Plus it feels like you're in a tree house up there!
But the culture of the white, well-heeled suburban commuters was the most remarkable thing. We did travel during peak hours, when the bar was open - yes, they'll sell your alchohol, and you can bring your own too. You can eat all you like. There was also an ad-hoc but recurring game of cards, for money. Somebody brings a white poster board and a deck, and middle aged men play, seated in rows. When they fold, they throw their cards over their buddies heads, landing semi-precisely on the posterboard. It's clear from their practiced focus, they do this a lot.
The Metra system is huge. There are ~5 lines, and trains running every 20 minutes at some times, and hundreds of people per train. Unless the automobile system totally collapses, Louisville would never have that volume, probably just 2-5 runs per rush-hour, but we could expect the same density of people per car in any case.
Anyway, I thourougly enjoyed my trips on Metra, it's an impressive system, built on a massive scale, but the most interesting part of it all was the human behavior.