M9 and M9A Procurement & Acceptance

Not the busiest feed but not dead either. Do keep in mind that ridership, which was recovering, has dropped again due to Omicron. But many of us would like to know, for instance, what if anything is happening with the M9's, and how many more years it will take to get them into service, whether they are has horribly painful to sit in as M7's, etc. Or for us M3 fans, what's happening with those. And lacking a separate thread, whether LIRR is making any progress towards it's next generation of bilevels, including whether they've learned any lessons from the C3's. It might make sense to rename the thread to make it a bit more general about LIRR passenger cars and their future.

Thanks Jake Rothman for the update. I'm always interested in the progress of new equipment.

9131-9132 entered service on #28 this morning. 9137-9138 also entered service on #904, looks like we're starting to speed up here

Are these M3's or M9's? Since I don't have a train number list, what trains?

Photobug56, the 9000 series cars are the M9's. And anyway, isn't that the title of this thread?

Trains numbered 1-199 are weekday to/from Babylon. And 900 series trains are weekday West Hempstead Branch.

Thanks. 9000s used to be M3s, as I recall.

Actually you're right Photobug56. Thanks for reminding me. The M3's are 9771 thru 9946. The m9's are re-using the old M1 numbering which was 9001-9770. Although there are only slated to be around 250 M9's.

When I regularly rode electrics, I always hoped for the M3's, and tried for the single seat by the bulge (air brake related?) or the outside seat with it's back to the bulge. Less hassle and noise, and the M3's didn't break down as much as the M1's. So for a while I'd look for them by the numbers.

As to the mythical M9's, I despise the M7 headrests and have waited for an answer as to whether the M9 headrests (and lack of space) are as bad.

When I rode an M9 a while back, the only real difference I noticed was the improved arm rest which will not snag your clothes like the M7 ones do. I believe it's the same seats and head-rests as the M7's. Though I may have heard something in the past about the M9 seats being a tad wider than the M7's. I'm not sure.

The C3's had awful head rests, and after lots of complaints, including people begging for them to be replaced, LIRR doubled down with the M7 head rests making them even worse. Kind of shaped like M's or W's, and if you put your head back it kind of bounces from side to side and on and off the very hard center projection. Wouldn't surprise me if they are even worse on the M9's.

Before the C3's were finalized, LIRR did focus groups out at Hillside with a mockup. Everything regarding 'comfort' was up for grabs. LIRR listened carefully and anywhere it counted did exactly the opposite of what the focus groups asked for. And yes, I was part of one of the focus groups. When the first ones went into service, some of us did our best to beg LIRR to fix them, long before most were built. When the M7's came out and were even worse, well, my cynicism got far worse.

My guess is they go with whatever is the least expensive product regardless of public opinion. The focus groups are just for show.

I never felt sure whether it was just being cheap or they chose to make the seats as uncomfortable as they could. Personal feeling was the latter. It's not just the headrests, which at the time LIRR said were to provide better LUMBAR support (wrong part of the spine). The horizontal part of the seats often slope down and out, so you gradually slide off. You can't use your knee to brace yourself because the back of the seat in front of you is so hard. Etc. But cheap, yes. Didn't take long before there was more blue duct tape than original seat covering.

Yonkers report & a question. Yesterday I observed 9182, 84, 86, & 88 with their mates looking ready to ship, plus 2 more pairs I couldn't see numbers. My question is regarding cars numbered 9120, 9157, & 9158 there without stripe graphics and on truck dollies, are they going back for factory adjustments?

Is the net number of M9's in service going up or down?

trainspot wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 11:05 pm Yonkers report & a question. Yesterday I observed 9182, 84, 86, & 88 with their mates looking ready to ship, plus 2 more pairs I couldn't see numbers. My question is regarding cars numbered 9120, 9157, & 9158 there without stripe graphics and on truck dollies, are they going back for factory adjustments?

9182 and mate were posted on facebook on the NY Connecting RR.