Railroad Forums 

  • M9 and M9A Procurement & Acceptance

  • Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.
Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.

Moderator: Liquidcamphor

 #1221176  by jetset
 
I'll post the obvious...

Outlets at every seat, Wi-Fi, no middle seats, Conductors who don't make repeat announcements on top of the GPS system announcements.
 #1221179  by inthebag
 
3x2 seating isn't going anywhere so get used to it.

I'd like to see a luggage area added to the F-end vestibule. Just taking out two 2-seaters on one side would be a huge improvement. The lost seating capacity is irrelevant when you have people putting their gigantic luggage in a 3-seater and hogging it all for themselves. Don't even get me started on the bicycles and baby strollers.

I'd also like to see a LCD monitor in the vestibules and maybe elsewhere in the car that displays the full route map (with station capacities), next station, car number in the consist, connecting trains, etc.
 #1221185  by lirr42
 
jetset wrote:Outlets at every seat, Wi-Fi, no middle seats, Conductors who don't make repeat announcements on top of the GPS system announcements.
I think we'll definitely see outlets in every row. Personally, I don't think the LIRR's ready for Wi-Fi on its trains, the infrastructure just isn't there. We'll maybe see Wi-Fi ready trains, with the necessary wiring already installed, but I don't see it happening by time the M9's hit the rails. Can't predict what will happen with the conductor announcements, though!
inthebag wrote:3x2 seating isn't going anywhere so get used to it.

I'd like to see a luggage area added to the F-end vestibule. Just taking out two 2-seaters on one side would be a huge improvement. The lost seating capacity is irrelevant when you have people putting their gigantic luggage in a 3-seater and hogging it all for themselves. Don't even get me started on the bicycles and baby strollers.

I'd also like to see a LCD monitor in the vestibules and maybe elsewhere in the car that displays the full route map (with station capacities), next station, car number in the consist, connecting trains, etc.
A luggage area would be nice. It could also just serve as spare standing room for those really crowded occasions. Hopefully we'll see those bike hook things like they were piloting on the M8's. But supposedly the M9's going to squeeze out 8 more seats per pair, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

One thing that would be cool to see would be a scaled down version of the FIND displays that are seen on the R160's. It doesn't have have 10 spaces for stops, but the LCD monitor and 5 or so of those slanted displays for station stops, connections, etc. positioned right above the doors would be neat.
 #1221192  by NH2060
 
lirr42 wrote:One of my big things would be to have some sort of indicator within the cars that tell you the position of your car in the train (i.e. each car would have a display that would say this is car A, car B, car C, etc.). We've all head those announcements like "you must be in one of the first six cars to exit at St. Albans," etc, but if you're rushing to get on the train in Penn Station where you often can't see the entire train and where your car is, "first six cars" doesn't help too much. If they said "you must be in cars A through F to exit at St. Albans," that might help more, since I can tell exaclty where I have to go if I can see I'm currently in car H.
That's actually a really great idea. I would take that over the outlets in each seat any day!
 #1231475  by lirr42
 
Back in September I sent an e-mail to the MTA about the differences in the M9 vs. M9A order. I finally got an official response earlier this evening:
Response By Email (Susan McGowan) (11/26/2013 05:06 PM) wrote: Dear Dr. O'Hara:

Your recent e-mails (130917-000400 and 131123-000065) inquiring about the M9/M9A procurement process were received via the MTA Customer E-Mail System.

The M9A car that you refer to in the RFEI is a separate Federal Procurement for LIRR cars required to support East Side Access.

LIRR and MNR will both be receiving M9 Cars, but only the LIRR will be receiving M9A Cars.

I hope this information is helpful. We appreciate your interest in the LIRR.

Sincerely,
S. McGowan
So as it looks now, there will be one version of the M9 car for both Metro-North and the LIRR and then there will be a separate M9A procurement that will go slightly differently just for the LIRR later on down the line.
 #1231668  by Head-end View
 
Interesting reply from Susan McGowan. Years ago she was a TV reporter on Channel-21. She's been in LIRR Public Relations for many years now, and I once met her at one of the LIRR public hearings re: building the third track from Floral Park to Hicksville. Nice lady

One thing I didn't get from her reply to you. Is the M9A going to be a slightly different car, or just an add-on order of the same exact car? She didn't really explain that.
 #1257990  by 4400Washboard
 
I know it's a little early for this thread, but I started it now in case anything happens too early.

This thread is for news regarding M3 cars on the scrapline, OOS cars and M9s arriving, testing and entrance to service news.
 #1258004  by lirr42
 
We are still several years from hearing anything about the first M9. As a result, we are still several years from any substantial retirement of the M3 fleet. This thread is ridiculous and has no purpose for the next several years.
 #1258013  by NH2060
 
tjensen wrote:in case anything happens too early.
You can never EVER be too early with these things. If something is built/delivered on time then that's pure luck. It's almost always the opposite.

Perhaps we can freeze this now and thaw it in… say 2020? ;-)
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