Not surprisingly, New Haven MetroNorth commuters are least satisfied with their train conditions - by a large margin - compared to their Harlem and Hudson counterparts.

New Haven riders gave their cars a 72% in the 2007 satisfaction survey, an improvement over the 68% of 2006.

However, Harlem and Hudson riders give their trains 98% and 91% approval, respectively.

This is largely because New Haven trains, which are the only cars not owned by MTA (The are owned by Connecticut), have well outrun their planned life expectancy of 25 years. Meanwhile, Hudson and Harlem have newer-generation cars in the M-7.

As a result, our cars with restrooms in them are, should we say - NOT POPULAR for sitting in. The walls are a cheesy 1970’s fake wood veneer. The floors a serviceable linoleum. The windows are usually filthy. The seats are placed so close together you cant open a notebook computer in your seat, which is decorated in some sort of red-and-blue circus theme. The air conditioning, when it works, is barely adequate for August life support.

Oh, and we are often short cars from being out for repairs so often, so a lot of us are used to sitting on top of the bar. in a bar car, as a frequent early-morning treat. We stand alot too. We don’t like it.

As we previously reported, however, things are looking up, as we are expected to get brand-new M-8 cars from Kawasaki late in 2009.

Some info Via StamfordAdvocate.com