TRAINS: David Lassen
CHICAGO — Metra’s first bike car — a Pullman-Standard coach with seating removed on half of the lower level, creating space for 16 bicycles — made its debut Saturday, a biking-friendly day of unseasonable temperatures in the 70s.
TRAINS: David Lassen
Metra unveiled the car on Thursday, saying its debut had been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic [see “Metra debuts new bike car, will allow bicycles on all trains,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 6, 2020]. Here, as the fourth car in a six-car consist, it arrives at Lake Forest, Ill., during its first outbound trip from Chicago, on train No. 2607. The car will operate on the Milwaukee North line, making two round trips on weekends and four on weekdays; the schedule is available here.
Careful observers may note that MP36PH-3S No. 422 wears a fairly recent modification of the Metra paint scheme, which has replaced the silver paint along the roofline with black. The silver above the cab windows tended to show soot from the locomotive exhaust.
