On September 10, 2019, the Long Island Rail Road operated a special round-trip service from Jamaica to Hicksville for New York area press/media. Although the inaugural run was the following day, 9/11/2019, this Press Run was the first time M9s carried non-railroad personnel.
A total of 202 M9 railcars will enter service between 2019 and 2021, replacing the aging Budd M3 fleet built in the 1980s. Also being replaced is Nassau Tower, seen in the background. However, it will be replaced with a third track. Preservation efforts are being made, despite the tower's anemic structure.
The nation's busiest passenger railroad depends every day on a fleet of nearly 1,000 multiple unit cars to bring hundreds of thousands of commuters to and from their jobs.
