Commuter rail smoking policies

Does anyone know where I can find a complete list of the exact years commuter rails banned smoking within the cabs/cars?

Or does anyone know the years any specific commuter rails banned smoking?

Thanks in advance!

RT2: Smoking was banned on the NY MTA Commuter Railroads-the LIRR and MNCR in 1988. I recall that a NYS law was passed for this to occur. SEPTA in Philadelphia banned smoking first before anyone else had-in 1985 to be exact. I remember that on SEPTA when you would have a 2-car train that one each would be NO SMOKING and SMOKING PERMITTED but the times were definitely changing-you would have standees in non-smoking cars but plenty of seats available in smoking cars. Another thing mentioned was that smoking cars were harder to clean than non-smokers-not to mention the damage sometimes caused by cigarettes-they were sometimes being put out on seats deliberately-an example I recall. I remember that on certain trains on the LIRR the smoking cars would be literally slums on wheels practically with the foul air,trash strewn about and sometimes even vandalism. In general it is a somewhat cleaner environment today-MACTRAXX

A long time ago, in the mid to late '70s on the Milwaukee Road one of our engineers quit smoking. He went on to demand that cabs be made no smoking. He included in his demand that the east end of cab cars become no smoking as he didn't want the stuff permeating the cab. So his wish was granted. The west section of the lead cab car remained a smoking section. This also lead to a reduction in the amount of smoking sections on each train as this was becoming acceptable to most passengers.

I maintain files of rail news articles for research purposes. Yesterday, by accident, I came across an article which jogged my memory about this thread.

On February 21, 1988 the New York Times reported on the smoking ban that had taken place the previous Monday (Feb. 15th, 1988) on the Long Island Rail Road and on Metro-North.

The ban was voted in at a meeting of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Jan 22, 1988. Faced with losing $539 million in Federal funding for the LIRR (why this would be so was not explained), the MTA's LIRR committee voted to prohibit smoking on Long Island Rail Road trains. The Metro-North committee voted to restrict smoking to one-car-per-train but was overruled by the MTA board. Saying they wanted a "uniform policy," the MTA board voted 10-3 to ban smoking on Metro-North trains as well.

NJT: since circa 1985(?) in cars and station interiors, but effective April 15, 2006 also on all outdoor platforms.

Recently a guy waiting for a train at a Metro-North station asked me if smoking was allowed on Metro-North platforms. I smoke and, being that there are no signs warning against smoking on the platforms, I told him I thought it was okay.

He informed me he was from Long Island and it is prohibited to smoke on LIRR platforms. That they have signs on the platforms. As long as they provide signs, I have no problem with it,

They're both under NY-MTA, but if you read my above message, originally MNRR was going to maintain one smoking car per train (while LIRR was making all trains non-smoking), but the MTA board overruled them. So there does seem to be a history of difference in opinion between LIRR and MNRR on the subject of smoking.

I can't believe the LIRR was as late as 1988. I thought it was sooner, but I was only a kid in the 80's. I remember being in them once or twice, and they were pure hell. By the time I hit high school and took the LIRR occasionally, it was smoke-free. The only time I remember seeing anybody smoking onboard was in the last car of a diesel in the vestibule, and there wasn't F unit to block the view.

Toronto in the early 1980's for an NRHS convention I remember GO staff saying there was no smoking because it ruined the upholstery on the car's seats.