Amfleet

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 1975–1977, were designed for short-distance service. A second order of 150 cars, known as Amfleet II and completed between 1980–1983, were designed for long-distance service. They were the last intercity passenger cars built by Budd.

Car types include both long- and short-distance coaches, cafes, club cars, and lounges. Since the construction of the cars, multiple rebuildings have eliminated the club cars and lounges in favor of business class cars, club-dinettes, and "diner-lite" dining cars. Amtrak experimented with sleeping car conversions in the 1970s, but did not pursue the idea. The Amfleet I has vestibules on both ends of the car for faster unloading, while the Amfleet II has a single vestibule. The Amfleet II also has slightly larger windows.

The Amfleets were the first new locomotive-hauled intercity cars ordered by Amtrak and the first such cars built in the United States since 1965. Their introduction in the mid-1970s led to improved reliability for Amtrak's trains and ridership gains. , Amfleet cars are used extensively in the eastern and midwestern United States, forming the backbone of Amtrak's single-level fleet.

Background

Amtrak assumed control of almost all private sector intercity passenger rail service in the United States on May 1, 1971, with a mandate to reverse decades of decline. It retained approximately 184 of the 440 trains which had run the day before. To operate these trains, Amtrak inherited a fleet of 300 locomotives (electric and diesel) and 1190 passenger cars, most of which dated from the 1940s–1950s. These cars were aging, in need of maintenance, and in many cases incompatible with each other. The company recognized the need and opportunity to standardize on a single design.

Very few railcars had been built for inter-city service in the United States since the 1950s; the last locomotive-hauled cars were an order of ten coaches built by Pullman-Standard for the Kansas City Southern Railway in 1965. An important exception was the Budd Metroliner electric multiple unit. This fleet of 61 cars had begun operation between Washington, D.C. and New York City on the Northeast Corridor in 1969 under Penn Central and quickly gained acceptance with the traveling public, despite various engineering problems. Writing in the mid-1970s, railroad historian John H. White Jr. described them as "Amtrak's brightest star." In 1973, Budd still had the tooling in place from the Metroliner order, meaning that any new order derived from that design could begin almost at once.

History

Amfleet I

Amtrak placed a $24 million order with Budd on October 12, 1973 for 57 "non-powered Metroliner cars." These, together with new GE E60 electric locomotives, were to provide additional ''Metroliner'' service on the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak expanded its plans in June 1974, ordering 200 more cars for $81 million. On October 25, it added another 35 cars. Finally, in April 1975, with the first deliveries imminent, Amtrak added 200 more cars to the order for $86 million. This brought the first order to 492 cars, with a total cost of $192 million. Amtrak intended to use 212 of the cars on Northeast Corridor service between Washington and New York; unlike the electric Metroliners, the Amfleet cars could continue through to Boston, Massachusetts.

A public unveiling took place at the Budd plant in Northeast Philadelphia on June 19, 1975, after which four cars were sent to the High Speed Ground Test Center in Pueblo, Colorado for evaluation. The first Amfleet cars began running on the Northeast Corridor on August 5, 1975. Amtrak heralded their arrival, calling 1975 "the Year of the Amfleet." As the cars were distributed throughout the system, timetables would note that trains now had "Amfleet Service" and that trains had been "Amfleeted." A 1978 study conducted by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) found that ridership increased 11% on the Amfleet-equipped Northeast Corridor trains, with at least some passengers choosing the slower but more comfortable Amfleets over the faster but less reliable ''Metroliners''.

The rollout of Amfleets throughout the system was restricted by the availability of locomotives with HEP or special generator cars. The first route outside the Northeast Corridor to receive Amfleets was the Washington– Martinsburg '' Blue Ridge'', on December 1. By November 1976, 350 Amfleets had been delivered and 78% of Amtrak's short-haul trains used either Amfleets or equally-modern Turboliner trainsets. Besides the ''Blue Ridge'', routes using Amfleets outside the Northeast Corridor included the New York–Newport News, Virginia ''Colonial'', the Chicago, Illinois–Detroit, Michigan ''Twilight Limited'' and ''Wolverine'', the Chicago–St. Louis, Missouri ''Abraham Lincoln'' and '' State House'', the Chicago–Quincy, Illinois ''Illinois Zephyr'', the Chicago–Carbondale, Illinois '' Illini'' and ''Shawnee'', the Chicago–Dubuque, Iowa '' Black Hawk'', the Los Angeles–Bakersfield, California '' San Joaquin'', the Los Angeles–San Diego, California '' San Diegan'', the Portland, Oregon–Seattle, Washington ''Mount Rainier'' and ''Puget Sound'', and the Seattle–Vancouver, British Columbia ''Pacific International''.

The Amfleet's modern HEP system proved invaluable during the unusually harsh winter of 1976–1977, which sidelined many of Amtrak's aging steam-heated coaches. Amtrak suspended numerous routes and pressed the short-distance Amfleet I coaches into long-distance service. The new EMD F40PH diesel locomotive, itself designed for short-haul service, handled many of these trains. Budd completed delivery of the Amfleet I order on June 9, 1977.

Amfleet II

Amtrak ordered 150 more Amfleet cars from Budd on March 13, 1980, at a cost of $150 million. These cars, dubbed Amfleet II, were intended to replace rolling stock on Amtrak long-distance trains, and featured larger windows, more legroom, and folding legrests. Budd delivered the first four cars on October 28, 1981; the unveiling took place on November 11. The final cars arrived on June 11, 1983. The Amfleet IIs were the last intercity cars Budd built. The continuing unreliability of the original Metroliners led to refurbished Amfleet I coaches displacing them in '' Metroliner'' service in 1981. New EMD AEM-7 electric locomotives pulled the trains.

Unlike the Superliner-equipped trains in the Western United States, Amtrak's eastern long-distance single-level trains never operated with uniform consists. The trains operated with a combination of Amfleet and Heritage Fleet cars, supplemented in the 1990s by Viewliner sleeping cars. In 1990, Amfleets could be found on every long-haul route east of the Mississippi River: the Virginia–Florida ''Auto Train''; the Chicago–New Orleans ''City of New Orleans

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