The ''Metroliners'' were extra-fare
high speed trains
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
between
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
which operated from 1969 to 2006. They were briefly first operated by
Penn Central Transportation
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central Railroad ...
(successor to the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
, which originally ordered the equipment), then by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
for 35 years.
Service originally ran with
Budd Metroliner
The Budd Metroliner was a class of American electric multiple unit (EMU) railcar designed for first-class, high-speed service between New York City and Washington, D.C. on the Northeast Corridor. They were designed for operation up to : what w ...
s, self-powered
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
cars designed for high-speed service. These proved unreliable and were replaced with locomotive-hauled trains in the 1980s. The trains had reserved business-class and first-class seating. The fastest trips between New York's
Pennsylvania Station
Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
and Washington, D.C.'s
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
were scheduled for 2.5 hours, though some midday trains around 1980 had schedules as long as 4 hours.
Amtrak replaced ''Metroliner'' service with the high-speed ''
Acela Express
The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and Boston via 13 intermediate stops, includ ...
'', which runs up to in revenue service. The first ''Acela Express'' trains ran in 2000, but due to equipment difficulties they did not fully replace the ''Metroliners'' until 2006.
History
Beginning of service
![Metroliner (24291720919)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Metroliner_%2824291720919%29.jpg)
The
High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965
The High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965Public Law 89-220, 79 Stat. 893 was the first attempt by the U.S. Congress to foster the growth of high-speed rail in the U.S. The High Speed Ground Transportation Act was introduced immediately follo ...
started a U.S. Government effort to develop a high speed train for Northeast Corridor service. The
U.S. Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...
worked with the Pennsylvania Railroad,
Budd Company
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 ...
,
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
and
Westinghouse to develop an
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
high speed passenger train.
An initial order of 50
Budd Metroliner
The Budd Metroliner was a class of American electric multiple unit (EMU) railcar designed for first-class, high-speed service between New York City and Washington, D.C. on the Northeast Corridor. They were designed for operation up to : what w ...
cars was placed on May 6, 1966, with a target service date of October 1967. Service was to operate at with later increases to , with hourly New York – Washington service and half-hourly New York – Philadelphia service.
The
Johnson Administration saw the new service as political capital and pushed for an aggressive schedule.
The new cars were primarily intended for high-level platforms for faster boarding; the PRR constructed high-level island platforms at
Wilmington,
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
in 1967 and 1968.
On June 13, 1967, the PRR announced plans for a
suburban New Jersey station directly off the
Garden State Parkway
The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jersey ...
.
The same month, the PRR decided on the "Metroliner" name for the vehicles and service, and announced that the trains would have higher fares than conventional service.
The first cars were delivered in September 1967, but soon proved to have numerous electric issues. Start of service was delayed to January 1968, then postponed indefinitely in March 1968.
The PRR folded into
Penn Central
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...
on February 1, 1968.
SEPTA
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...
refused its 11 Metroliners, intended for
Philadelphia-Harrisburg service, in August; Penn Central eventually leased them, increasing its fleet to 61. In October 1968, testing proved that the cars could operate the desired sub-3-hour trip time, and substation modifications by Westinghouse increased electrical reliability.
Penn Central and Budd reached a settlement on their legal fight in November; on December 20, Penn Central announced that service would begin on January 16, 1969.
A Washington-New York round trip for VIPs was operated on January 15, 1969.
''Metroliner'' service finally started on January 16, 1969, with a single daily round trip leaving New York in the morning and Washington in the afternoon.
A second round trip on a corresponding reversed schedule was added on February 10th.
A non-stop round trip on a 2.5 hour schedule was added on April 2, 1969.
However, problems with the cars persisted; maximum speeds temporarily dropped from to soon after.
Despite difficulties, the service proved overwhelmingly popular and fairly reliable, with 90% on-time performance by May 1. Penn Central added a computerized ticketing system in August 1969, and doubled service to six daily round trips on October 27.
On March 16, 1970,
Capital Beltway station
Capital Beltway was a railway station in Lanham, Maryland. It was built in 1970 by the Penn Central Transportation Company in partnership with the state of Maryland, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), and Prince George's Count ...
opened to serve the ''Metroliners'', and all trips were scheduled for under three hours. A seventh round trip was added that August.
Beginning on February 1, 1971, a
cross-platform transfer
A cross-platform interchange is a type of interchange between different lines at a metro (or other railway) station. The term originates with the London Underground; such layouts exist in other networks but are not commonly so named. In the Un ...
to
Turboliner
The Turboliners were a family of gas turbine trainsets built for Amtrak in the 1970s. They were among the first new equipment purchased by Amtrak to update its fleet with faster, more modern trains. The first batch, known as RTG, were built by ...
service to Boston was offered at Penn Station. However, top speed was soon reduced again to , making the ''Metroliners'' scarcely faster than conventional trains.
Amtrak era
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
took over intercity passenger service from private operators on May 1, 1971. Although many trains were discontinued with the takeover, ''Metroliner'' service increased to 9 round trips.
Schedules further increased to 12 round trips on an hourly schedule on November 14, 1971; one trip was extended to
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
(then the northern limit of electrification). Two more round trips were added on May 1, 1972, and the all-time maximum of 15 round trips was reached on October 28, 1973.
Change of equipment
Although initially promising, the Budd Metroliners proved unreliable; by January 1978,
GG1
The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 is a class of streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 10 ...
and
E60 locomotives hauling conventional
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 in ...
coaches (whose design was based on the ''Metroliner'') had better on-time percentages than ''Metroliners''.
In March 1978, Amtrak began sending the cars to
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
for rebuilding. A GG1/Amfleet set covered one ''Metroliner'' round trip on a slower schedule.
In 1982 Amtrak finished replacing the Budd Metroliner cars, which had developed problems with their motors limiting their speed, with trains powered by the Swedish-developed
AEM-7
The EMD AEM-7 is a twin-cab four-axle B-B electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and ASEA between 1978 and 1988. The locomotive is a derivative of the Swedish SJ Rc4 designed for passenger service in the United States. The ...
locomotives pulling Amfleet coaches. Maximum speed of locomotive-hauled ''Metroliner''s increased to in 1982 and in 1985.
In the six months following October 29, 1990, the morning nonstop express trains were scheduled to cover the distance between Washington and New York in two hours and thirty minutes, an average speed from start to arrival of better than 90 miles per hour.
Discontinuance
Amtrak expanded ''Metroliner'' service when problems developed with ''Acela Express'' braking systems during 2002 and 2005. As trainsets were repaired, the number of ''Metroliner'' trains declined to one round trip each weekday, which was finally discontinued on October 27, 2006.
The current ''
Northeast Regional
The ''Northeast Regional'' is an intercity rail service operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. In the past it has been known as the ''NortheastDirect'', ''Acela Regional'', or ''Regional''. It is Amtrak's busies ...
'' service matches the top speed of ''Metroliner'' service, but makes more stops and does not offer first class seating. With scheduled travel time of 2:45 between New York to Washington, the ''Acela'' is slower than the fastest ''Metroliner'' times.
Other ''Metroliner'' services
Amtrak operated several other short-lived services under the ''Metroliner'' brand.
On October 31, 1982, Amtrak added two ''New England Metroliner'' round trips between New York City and Boston, which ran with diesel locomotives north of New Haven. These were discontinued on April 28, 1984.
The next day, an additional round trip was added to the Los Angeles – San Diego corridor, supplementing the ''
San Diegan''.
Branded as ''Metroliner'', it made only two intermediate stops, cutting 15 minutes from the normal ''San Diegan'' schedule.
The trip was discontinued on April 28, 1985.
On October 29, 1989, Amtrak introduced a single one-way morning ''Metroliner'' trip from
Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Downingtown is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 7,898. Downingtown was settled by European colonists in the early 18th century and has a number of historic buildings an ...
to Washington. The trip largely served Amtrak employees, as a corresponding evening trip to serve regular commuters was not offered. The Downingtown trip was discontinued on October 25, 1991.
See also
*
Notes
References
{{Former Amtrak routes
Former Amtrak routes
High-speed trains of the United States
Named passenger trains of the United States
Railway services introduced in 1969
Railway services discontinued in 2006