Espresso yourself: Chicago Metra’s Café Car trial run continues this fall

Note to Amtrak's San Joaquin, SMART, Caltrain, ACE: this article originally appeared in Streetsblog Chicago. Can we have nice things too?

This fall, Metra has been testing its prototype Café Car on most of its highest-ridership rail lines and stations. It has coffee shop-inspired counters, tables, and seating. During the first week, September 30 to October 6, it ran on the Rock Island line. This week, the Café Car ran from Tuesday to today on the BNSF Line between Union Station and Aurora. It's the busiest route, and some runs stop in Riverside, the historic west-suburban village where I live. See next week's schedule for the pilot at the bottom of this post.

On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., I checked out the Chicagoland's new café culture on the BNSF and buttonholed a few coffee fans. "I'm from Downers Grove," a rider named Mohamed, Mo for short, told me. "So, I basically ride Metra every day to school over at the University of Chicago. I think [the Café Car] is a really good idea. It's a good way to bring in some extra revenue for Metra, and it's also nice to have some tables and everything. It really reminds me of the Amtrak service, where they have that whole dining area. So, I think it's a really good idea to get people to come on here."

During this trial run, the Café Car serves cold brew, coffee, soft drinks, water, chips, cookies, granola bars, and snack crackers. Working the counter was Elaine Teter, the director of marketing at Metra. "I needed to make sure I understood what people wanted," she explained. In order to get an idea of what riders would like to see in this carriage, everyone who rides the Café Car is given a QR code to fill out a survey. Participants are thanked with complimentary refreshments.

"It's great," Teter said. "We've gotten a lot of really positive responses. People seem to like it. They have all sorts of ideas of what they'd like us to do in the future. So that's really what we're looking for, especially when it comes to food, drinks, and that kind of thing. So it's been really fun and a lot of possibilities."

"We don't know [how long it'll take to go through all the responses], because we have to really evaluate what people want and what we can do," Teter added. "So we should be done with our trial mid-November, and then after that, it's really going to be figuring out what people like, what we're capable of creating, and what's involved in it, you know. So it might take a little while before we can figure it out."

Joseph Cimino rides Metra with his wife every day, and both of them wanted to ride the Café Car. He said the car is an "interesting concept" and He's glad Metra is trying something new but he thinks the Café Car has some "logistic issues."

"You're gonna have a crowd of people coming in, and they're going to be on the train for maybe 10 minutes," Cimino said. "Are they going to be able to serve enough to serve enough people in 10 minutes? Are you gonna be able to get enough people through it make it profitable? Because if it's not profitable, it's gonna go away. So, that's the stuff that they've been talking about. Can they make it work? They're giving the stuff away. Now, of course, people will line up for free stuff, but you figure you're gonna have to charge. You could charge what Starbucks charges, but are they gonna be able to turn it out fast enough? If you're on a 10-minute ride and it takes four minutes to brew a pot of coffee, is that going to be enough time?"

Lauren Myers rides the train three days a week to her advertising job. She said the Café Car is "really nice." However, Myers said she has some concerns as well. "The one thing I'm worried about is congestion," said Myers. "I can see this car getting packed body to body with just people looking for space and not people wanting to enjoy the amenities of the car."

"I would want drink and snacks to be a reasonable price, comparable to how they are in the Metra station," Myers added. "I don't want to feel extorted for like, a super expensive beer or something. [While it's legal to BYOB on Metra, it's not clear whether alcohol will be sold on the trains in the future.] But overall, I think it's great."

Here's the Café Car schedule for next week, October 21 to 27 on the Milwaukee District North Line:

There will also be a "station showcase" of one of the prototype cars Monday, Oct. 27 from 8:00 a.m. to Noon Union Station