It looks like the party will keep on rolling on the Metro-North Railroad's Connecticut trains, as officials are moving forward with plans to replace out-of-date bar cars with new ones.

The new cars will look more like a sit-down pub on wheels than the current wide-open design with benches along the sides, according to floor plans being circulated by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

New York City commuters on a Metro-North 'bar car' on their way to Connecticut on Thursday. Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street Journal

The old bar cars are set to be retired in coming years as Metro-North's New Haven Line takes delivery of 300 new cars over the next three years to replace part of its aging fleet. No provision had been made for new bar cars.

But Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell is asking the state's bond commission to approve $226 million in borrowing to buy 80 more new railcars—seven of which will have their rows of seats stripped out and turned into rolling bars, a state spokesman said.

That has bar-car regulars relieved. They're worried, though, about the proposed design. It includes three rows of seats, four banquette-style tables and three round tables in the middle of the car. That will leave far less standing space than on the current set of cars.

"We want to stand around and talk, and not be sitting in tiny little groups of four," said Terri Cronin, the vice chair of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, which has been surveying passengers about the new designs.

Ms. Cronin, a management consultant, gets text messages from a bartender about which evening trains will have a bar car because there aren't always enough working cars to fit the scheduled runs. Some bar cars date to the 1970s.

Bar cars—or cafe cars in the language of the railroad—are one of the few parts of the railroad that actually make money. They generated over $500,000 in profits last year.

"It's like a big group party," Ms. Cronin said. "You end up talking to all these people you never would have talked to if you were sitting in all these little social pods everywhere."

Ms. Cronin and other passengers say they don't want to get stuck in small groups at tables. They'd rather mingle. Ms. Cronin said that's how she's met business contacts and made good friends in the bar car.

Officials from Metro-North and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which pays for the cars, say they've shown the designs to focus groups, where some riders had complaints similar to Ms. Cronin's.

But the railroad is trying to squeeze as many seats as it can out of the bar cars, since the new passenger cars each have nine fewer seats than the ones they're replacing.

Happy Hour

"It's an ongoing balancing act," said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the Connecticut transportation agency. "We're trying to maximize seating wherever we can, while at the same time providing the convenience of the cafe cars."

The designs aren't final and could be changed, Mr. Everhart said.

The New Haven line has some of the oldest cars in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's commuter rail system—the newest came into service in January 1996.

The first of the new passenger cars are being tested and will be in service later this year. But riders on trains made up of those cars won't be able to buy drinks until 2012 at the earliest. The electrical systems on the old bar cars aren't compatible with the new cars, so they can't be put onto the same train.

Write to Andrew Grossman at andrew.grossman@wsj.com