This Bud’s For Choo-Choo

Sure, you don’t need to drink on the train but isn’t it pretty sweet that you can? That may be changing:

An MTA board member made a sobering recommendation yesterday: Ban booze sales by the LIRR to its commuters.

Long Island Rail Road riders can buy a beer, a mixed drink or wine served in a plastic cup at railroad-staffed bar carts at Penn Station and at two other hubs.

At $2 a beer, it’s a relative bargain in this town — and the LIRR does a brisk business from the bar carts located on train platforms.

But at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee meeting yesterday, board member Mitchell Pally said the LIRR shouldn’t be in the booze business. As a state entity, it shouldn’t encourage alcohol consumption, partly because most passengers go on to drive home from LIRR parking lots, Pally said.

Under Pally’s proposal, passengers could still buy a libation elsewhere and bring it on board.

Many LIRR riders said they would miss the cheap and easy way to get drinks from the bar carts.

“There’s good things and there’s bad things about it,” said John Gambino, 33, last night as he raced to catch the train to Babylon and grabbed a beer. “But after a long day with all the pressure, it really relaxes you.”

Still, Gambino recalled how a pal of his had a few drinks on the train, then got the number of a young woman he was sitting next to — which his wife found in his coat pocket. “That caused problems,” he said.

This doesn’t apply to Hudson Valley- and Connecticut-bound Metro-North passengers, who apparently have more refined tastes:

Metro-North stood firmly in support of its drinking policy.

“We consider it an amenity for our customers who like a snack or a drink on their way home,” Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said.