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.
The Pacific Surfliner is a 350-mile (560 km) passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.
The Capitol Corridor is a 168-mile (270 km) passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two points most trains operate between, San Jose and Sacramento. The route runs roughly parallel to I-880 and I-80. Some limited trips run between Oakland and San Jose. A single daily round trip runs between San Jose and Auburn, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Capitol Corridor trains started in 1991.
The San Joaquins is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak in California's San Joaquin Valley. Six daily round trips run between its southern terminus at Bakersfield and Stockton, with onward service to Sacramento and Oakland.
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.
A passenger railroad car or passenger car, also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach, or passenger bogie is a railroad car that is designed to carry passengers. The term passenger car can also be associated with a sleeping car, a baggage car, a dining car, railway post office and prisoner transport cars.
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 Coast Daylight, originally known as the Daylight Limited, was a passenger train on the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, via SP's Coast Line. It was advertised as the "most beautiful passenger train in the world," carrying a particular red, orange, and black color scheme. The train operated from 1937 until 1974, being retained by Amtrak in 1971. Amtrak merged it with the Coast Starlight in 1974.
Amtrak has used a variety of paint schemes (liveries) on its rolling stock since taking over intercity passenger rail service in the United States in 1971. A series of seven schemes termed Phases, first introduced in 1972, have seen the widest use. Phases primarily use geometric arrangements of red, white, and blue—the national colors of the United States—part of Amtrak's patriotic visual identity.
Amfleet is a fleet of single-level intercity railroad passenger cars built by the Budd Company for American company Amtrak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Budd based the Amfleet design on its earlier Metroliner electric multiple unit. An initial order for 57 cars in 1973 to supplement the Metroliners on the Northeast Corridor grew to two orders totaling 642 cars, sufficient to reequip all the services on the Northeast Corridor and many other routes around the United States. The first 492 cars, known as Amfleet I and completed between 1975 and 1977, were designed for short-distance service. A second order of 150 cars, known as Amfleet II and completed between 1980 and 1983, were designed for long-distance service. They were the last intercity passenger cars built by Budd.
The Viewliner is a single-level railroad car type operated by Amtrak on most long-distance routes operating east of Chicago. The first production cars, consisting of an order of 50 sleeping cars, entered service in 1994. From 2015-2016, 70 Viewliner II baggage cars entered service. The new baggage cars are used on all Amtrak trains with full baggage cars, both single-level and bi-level, and replaced all of the Heritage Fleet baggage cars that Amtrak inherited from the freight railroads when it was established in 1971. From 2016-2019, 25 Viewliner II dining cars entered service, which replaced all of the Heritage Fleet dining cars. In 2019, 10 Viewliner II baggage-dormitory cars entered service. The last cars to enter service were 25 Viewliner II sleeping cars in 2021.
The Comet railcar is a class of locomotive-hauled railcars that was first designed in the late 1960s by Pullman-Standard as a modern commuter car for North American rail lines. Later, the Comet moniker was adopted by NJ Transit for all of its non-powered single level commuter coaches. Additional series of cars bearing the Comet name, based on the original design, have since been built by Bombardier Transportation and Alstom. The successful design was adopted by numerous commuter agencies.
The Horizon is a type of single-level intercity railroad passenger car used by Amtrak, the national rail passenger carrier in the United States. Amtrak ordered the cars to supplement their existing fleet of Amfleet I single-level cars used on shorter distance corridor trains. The design was based on the Comet railcar used for commuter railroads, but with modifications to make them more suitable for intercity service. Bombardier Transportation built 104 cars from 1988 to 1990 in two basic types: coaches and food service (café) cars.
The Hi-Level was a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars; a sleeping car variant was considered but never produced. Most passenger spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both sides. Boarding was on the lower level; passengers climbed up a center stairwell to reach the upper level. Vestibules on the upper level permitted passengers to walk between cars; some coaches had an additional stairwell at one end to allow access to single-level equipment.
The California Car is the first generation of intercity railcars owned by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and operated by Amtrak under the Amtrak California brand on intercity corridor routes in Northern and Central California. The cars were built in the mid-1990s for the Caltrans Division of Rail by Morrison–Knudsen and the American Passenger Rail Car Company (Amerail). The cars are similar in exterior dimensions to Amtrak's Superliner, but original in design to provide rolling stock suitable for California intercity services up to six hours, with more frequent stops than most other Amtrak routes. All cars were overhauled by Alstom at its Mare Island facility between 2009 and 2012.
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.
Siemens Venture is a type of locomotive-hauled passenger railroad car built by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. The cars are derived from the Siemens Viaggio Comfort cars used in Europe, with adaptations for North American operations. The cars entered service with Brightline in 2018 and with Amtrak Midwest in 2022. They have also been ordered by Amtrak for national and other state-supported routes, Via Rail, and Ontario Northland. The Venture cars will also be used on Amtrak’s Airo trainsets.
The Gallery Car is a bilevel rail car, originally created by the Pullman Company as the Pullman Gallery Car. It has had five total different manufacturers since its creation, including Budd, St. Louis Car Company, Amerail, Nippon Sharyo and Canadian Vickers. These double-decker passenger car were built by Pullman-Standard during the 1950s to 1970s for various passenger rail operators in the United States.
