In a drastic change of plans, today Metro-North has announced that the M-8 railcars will not be debuting on the New Haven Line. The new cars, made by the Kawasaki company, have been arriving a few at a time from Japan ever since December. They were to go into testing on the New Haven Line shortly, and hopefully launched by winter of this year, replacing the aging M-2 cars currently in use there.
New M-8 car, with blue Harlem Line paint scheme
The new M-8 cars which have already arrived will be getting new paint jobs – in a blue scheme, as opposed to the former red – and will be in service instead on the Harlem Line this winter. A factory in Lincoln, Nebraska will be constructing the remainder of the cars ordered, and these will be used on the New Haven Line. The first cars produced in Nebraska will arrive in 2012. When questioned about the change in plans, Dan Brucker, spokesman for Metro-North, said:
The people on the New Haven Line have suffered a long time with slow and late trains. I’m sure they can wait a little longer for their M-8’s. The New Haven Line is our least favorite of the major lines anyways – of course in front of the Pascack Valley and Port Jervis Lines. Do people even know those two exist?
I certainly can’t wait for the M-8’s! That is certainly good news, I won’t even have to go over to the New Haven Line for a chance to ride them!
Ahh, it all makes sense now. I was looking over Metro-North’s budget the other day, looking for future projects, and there was a strange one just listed as “Wire Upper Harlem (so they stop bitching and moaning)”. I guess the Upper Harlem is getting electrified with catenary. :)
They look better in Harlem Blue anyway…
They’re also reopening the line up to Chatham :P With catenary.
dream on.
Well I didn’t get any hate mail over this, so I guess everyone figured out it was an April Fool’s joke. Hopefully the tag that said as much clued everyone in. :P Oh, and my sincerest apologies to Dan Brucker for the bullshit quote. I hope his sense of humor will allow him to forgive me.
Since I’m totally gullible it took me reading the comments to figure it out. And I was about to comment “Is this why you asked me for Dan’s email address? I can’t believe he responded!” (And even if it is a made up quote, it sounds like something he would say – seriously. You captured his essence. Good job!)
LOL! Yeah, I did email him, but not about this. He never responded though. It made me sad, but I kind of figured he wouldn’t. Then again, maybe he didn’t because he saw this :P