Hedge Fund Workers Get Better Rail Service With Inaugural Run Of M8 Rail Car

May 21, 2008 1:07 p.m. EST

Greenwich, CT (AHN) - Greenwich residents commuting by rail to Manhattan are expecting better service with the inaugural run on Wednesday of the M8 rail car for the Greenwich-Manhattan link.

The rail cars cost $2.38 million each. It replaces older models which had been the subject of travelers' complains for extreme heat, bad seats and stinking toilets. This is the first time a new coach will be placed on the line in 15 years.

Most of the rail cars on the New Haven Line are candidates for replacement. About 43 percent of the trains on the line still use M2 cars, which are about 34 years in service. The newest fleet prior to the M8 are the M6s, which has been running the Metro-North link, the second busiest commuter rail service in the U.S., for over 14 years.

The M8s would gradually replace the older model rail cars. Marjorie Anders, spokeswoman of Metro-North, told Bloomberg the new rail cars would have larger toilets that has lavatories placed farther from commuters, better air conditioning system, Naugahyde upholstered seats, spacier legrooms, higher backs and individual headrests.

Ironically, most of Metro-North riders are the influential moneymakers consisting of bankers, traders and analysts who hold office at Greenwich, considered the hedge fund capital of North America.

Meanwhile, one old railway relic that Connecticut residents would not want to junk is the Windsor Locks railroad station built in 1875. It is the only extant structure in Windsor Locks Village, which hosted a mid-19th century business district made up of a hotel, pharmacies, an opera house and dining establishments. The station closed in 1971.

A Save the Station Committee is working to have the station placed on the National Register of Historic Places. President Dwight Eisenhower stopped at the station in the 1950s.