Caltrain is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley. The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far as Gilroy. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th and King Street. Caltrain has 28 regular stops, one limited-service weekday-only stop, one weekend-only stop (Broadway), and one football-only stop (Stanford). While average weekday ridership in 2019 exceeded 63,000, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant: in August 2022, Caltrain had an average weekday ridership of 18,600 passengers.
A bilevel car or double-decker coach is a type of rail car that has two levels of passenger accommodation as opposed to one, increasing passenger capacity.
Virginia Railway Express (VRE) is a commuter rail service that connects outlying small cities of Northern Virginia to Union Station in Washington, D.C. It operates two lines which run during weekday rush hour only: the Fredericksburg Line from Spotsylvania, Virginia, and the Manassas Line from Broad Run station in Bristow, Virginia. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 1,172,700, or about 6,200 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
The Superliner is a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used by Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier in the United States. Amtrak ordered the cars to replace older single-level cars on its long-distance trains in the Western United States. The design was based on the Budd Hi-Level vehicles, employed by the Santa Fe Railway on its El Capitan trains. Pullman-Standard built 284 cars, known as Superliner I, from 1975 to 1981; Bombardier Transportation built 195, known as Superliner II, from 1991 to 1996. The Superliner I cars were the last passenger cars built by Pullman.
An autorack, also known as an auto carrier, is a specialized piece of railroad rolling stock used to transport automobiles and light trucks. Autoracks are used to transport new vehicles from factories to automotive distributors, and to transport passengers' vehicles in car shuttles and motorail services, such as Amtrak's Auto Train route.
A dome car is a type of railway passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a coach, lounge car, dining car, sleeping car or observation. Beginning in 1945, dome cars were primarily used in the United States and Canada, though a small number were constructed in Europe for Trans Europ Express service.
Amtrak California is a brand name used by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Division of Rail for three state-supported Amtrak regional rail routes in California – the Capitol Corridor, the Pacific Surfliner, and the San Joaquins – and their associated connecting network of Amtrak Thruway transportation services.
The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products.
The BNSF Line is a Metra commuter rail line operated by the BNSF Railway in Chicago and its western suburbs, running from Chicago Union Station to Aurora, Illinois. In 2010, the BNSF Line continued to have the highest weekday ridership of the 11 Metra lines. While Metra does not refer to its lines by particular colors, the BNSF line's color on Metra timetables is "Cascade Green," in honor of the Burlington Northern Railroad.
The Milwaukee District West Line (MD-W) is a Metra commuter rail line in Chicago, Illinois, and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to any of its lines by a particular color, but the timetable accents for the Milwaukee District West line are dark "Arrow Yellow," honoring the Milwaukee Road's Arrow passenger train. Trains are dispatched from the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway's American headquarters in Minneapolis.
The Black Hawk was an Amtrak passenger train service that operated from 1974 to 1981 between Chicago, Illinois, and Dubuque, Iowa, via Rockford, Illinois. The original Black Hawk operated over the Illinois Central route, now the Canadian National's Chicago Central/Iowa Zone. From 2010 to 2014, plans called for the restored route to follow the same corridor; however, the state government could not come to an agreement with the railroad. Instead, the route would follow Metra's Milwaukee District / West Line from Union Station to Big Timber Road, then the Union Pacific Railroad to Rockford. Restored service to Rockford was planned to begin in 2015, but was put on hold by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner. An extension to Dubuque was to open at a later date. The Rockford service was later funded in 2019 with the support of Governor J.B. Pritzker. In July 2023, Pritzker announced that two round trips a day between Chicago and Rockford would begin by 2027, with the service operated by Metra as Rockford Intercity Passenger Rail rather than by Amtrak.
Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not.
The WeGo Star is a commuter rail service which runs between Nashville and Lebanon, Tennessee. The service uses the existing track of the Nashville and Eastern Railroad. The line stops at seven stations: Riverfront, Donelson, Hermitage, Mt. Juliet, Martha, Hamilton Springs and Lebanon. The operation covers 32 miles (51 km) of rail line. Service began on September 18, 2006. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 92,100.
Japan Transport Engineering Company (J-TREC) is a manufacturer of heavy rail cars in Japan, formerly known as Tokyu Car Corporation. The company is based in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, and a member of East Japan Railway Company group. J-TREC manufactures rail vehicles not only for JR East and Tokyu Corporation but for other Japanese operators, including various Japan Railways Group companies and international operators as well.
A control car, cab car, control trailer, or driving trailer is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or two driver compartments with all the controls and gauges required to remotely operate the locomotive, including exterior locomotive equipment such as horns, bells, ploughs, and lights. They also have communications and safety systems such as GSM-R or European Train Control System (ETCS). Control cars enable push-pull operation when located on the end of a train opposite its locomotive by allowing the train to reverse direction at a terminus without moving the locomotive or turning the train around.
The Kawasaki Railcar Manufacturing Company is the Japanese rolling stock manufacturing subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since beginning operations in 1906, the company has produced more than 90,000 railroad cars.
Nippon Sharyo, Ltd. , formed in 1896, is a major rolling stock manufacturer based in Nagoya, Japan. In 1996, it abbreviated its name to "日本車両" Nippon Sharyō. Its shortest abbreviation is Nissha "日車". It was a listed company on Nikkei 225 until 2004. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Nagoya Stock Exchange as ticker 7102. In 2008, Central Japan Railway Company became the majority shareholder (50.1%) of the financially struggling Nippon Sharyo making the firm a "consolidated subsidiary" of JR Central. In July 2012 Nippon Sharyo USA started production in their new facility in Rochelle, Illinois. The facility closed at the end of October 2018 due to a lack of orders.
The Highliner is a bilevel electric multiple unit (EMU) railcar. The original series of railcars were built in 1971 by the St. Louis Car Company for commuter service on the Illinois Central Railroad, in south Chicago, Illinois, with an additional batch later produced by Bombardier. A second generation featuring a completely new design was produced by Nippon Sharyo beginning in 2005.
Ann Arbor–Detroit Regional Rail is a proposed commuter rail service along the Michigan Line between the cities of Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, a total length of 39.72 miles (63.92 km). The project would connect with a proposed Detroit bus rapid transit service and the QLine streetcar.
The Next Generation Bi-Level Passenger Rail Car was a failed design of bilevel intercity railroad passenger cars that was to be built by Sumitomo, with construction subcontracted to Nippon Sharyo. The contract was awarded in 2012 with delivery scheduled between 2015 and 2018. After delays in production, a prototype car failed buff strength testing in August 2015, leading to the cancellation of the contract with Nippon Sharyo. Siemens replaced Nippon Sharyo as the construction subcontractor in late 2017 and under the new contract, Siemens Venture railcars will be delivered between 2020 and 2023 instead of the bilevel design.
