Chicago Union Station
July 9, 2014
Amtrak is the national intercity train network in the United States. Amtrak operates more than 300 trains in 46 states and three Canadian provinces over 21,300 miles of track each day. Most of Amtrak’s ridership is concentrated in the Northeast Corridor (Washington, DC-New York City-Boston), where the Acela Express high speed train runs at speeds of up to 150 MPH while in revenue service. A network of 15 long distance routes criscrossing the country, while not the most expedient way to get somewhere, provide for a remarkable travel experience and way to see the country that cannot be matched when one travels by car or airplane. These trains have sleeping cars, a full service dining car, and an observation car with floor to ceiling windows.
The Acela Express is Amtrak's premium service in the Northeast Corridor and North America's fastest passenger train. A Bombardier Alstom consortium built 20 trainsets at a cost of $800 million. Each trainset has two power cars, a first class car, four business class cars, and a cafe car. Acela Express entered revenue service on December 11, 2000. It operates at speeds of up to 150 MPH and has tilting technology to improve passenger comfort as the train goes through curves.
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Amtrak acquired 65 AEM-7 locomotives between 1978 and 1988. They have been used in the Northeast Corridor and on Keystone services. Twenty-nine AEM-7s were re-manufactured by Alstom in between 1999 and 2002.
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Amtrak ordered fifteen HHP-8 locomotives in 1999. These engines featured 8,000 horsepower engines, making them the most powerful in Amtrak\'s fleet. However, they were plagued with mechanical issues throughout their history and retired in November 2014 after just 15 years in revenue service.
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Amtrak ordered 70 ACS-64 electric locomotives from Siemens to replace the entire AEM-7 and HHP-8 fleets in the Northeast Corridor. These engines first entered service in 2014.
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Amtrak has three types of Genesis diesel locomotives, all of which were built by GE. The P40DC and P42DC are diesel locomotives used on Amtrak services throughout the country, with the exception of services to and from New York-Penn Station, where diesel locomotives are not permitted. The P32AC-DM is a dual-power locomotive that can operate using diesel power or electric power from a third rail, and as a result, is able to operate in to New York-Penn Station.
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The Siemens Charger is a diesel locomotive that operates on state funded short and medium haul services that are operated by Amtrak. The SC-44 locomotives can be found on trains in California, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington. Amtrak also purchased a variant of the SC-44, the ALC-42, that is designed for use on long-distance services. Its design is based on the ACS-64 electric locomotives that Amtrak acquired starting in 2014 and the Vectron locomotives used in Europe.
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Amtrak uses EMD manufactured F59PHI locomotives on its California services, the Cascades service, the Coast Starlight, and Piedmont.
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Amtrak converted surplus F40 locomotives in to non-powered control units that can operate at the front of a train in "push" mode. Many were modified to include a compartment for checked luggage. These can be found on a variety of services, including the Downeaster and Cascades.
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Amtrak's Amfleet Passenger cars are found throughout much of the railroad's network. They come in coach class, business class, and cafe car configurations and are used on both short distance and long distance trains in the Northeast and Midwest. They also occasionally run in California. These cars have been in service since 1975.
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The Horizon Cars are single-level passenger cars based off New Jersey Transit's Comet railcar design. The 194 cars were built starting in 1988 and entered service in 1989. Eighty-six cars are standard passenger coaches and the other eighteen cars are food service cars. Most of the Horizon equipment is assigned to short-haul services operating to and from Chicago, but a handful of cars are currently (as of December 2020) assigned to the San Joaquin and Pacific Surfliner in California and the Cascades service in Oregon and Washington.
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Amtrak's Superliner passenger cars are bi-level cars that operate on long distance services west of Chicago, as well as the Capitol Limited (Chicago-Washington) and Auto Train (Lorton-Sanford). These cars were built in sleeper, coach, diner, and lounge configurations. An additional configuration, the "transition-do", provides sleeping quarters for the train's crew as well as a vestibule to allow passage to a single level car, such as a locomotive or baggage car.
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The "California Cars" were initially manufactured in 1996. These double-decker passenger coaches are modeled after the Superliner coaches, but modified to make them suitable for use on corridor services with frequent stops. They initially debuted on the San Diegan (now the Pacific Surfliner) but currently operate on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin services.
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The Surfliner cars are Amtrak's second generation bi-level intercity corridor railcars. The design for these cars is based off the California Cars, but includes several improvements based on the issues that arose upon the delivery and acceptance of the California Cars. They entered service between 2000 and 2002 and operate on the Pacific Surfliner between San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
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Many of the cars used for baggage on Amtrak trains that accept checked luggage were inherited by Amtrak from its predecessor railways in 1971.
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Amtrak's fleet includes several "company cars" that are used for official purposes by Amtrak officials. The cars can also be used for inspections of catenary and track geometry.
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Amtrak has stations in 46 of the 48 contiguous United States. The only states with no train service are South Dakota and Wyoming. Amtrak's busiest stations in terms of the number of boardings are New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston-South Station.
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Specially branded motorcoaches are used for Thruway Motorcoach connections in California
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