Budd Metroliner
The Budd Metroliner was a class of American electric multiple unit 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 would have been the first high speed rail service in the Western Hemisphere. Although was reached during test runs, track conditions and electrical issues limited top speeds to in revenue service. The single-ended units were designed to be arranged in two-car sets, which were in turn coupled into four to eight-car trains.
The Pennsylvania Railroad ordered 61 Metroliner cars from the Budd Company in 1966 as part of a collaboration with the federal government to improve railroad service between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. After difficulties testing the cars, PRR successor Penn Central began its eponymous Metroliner service on January 16, 1969. Amtrak took over the service in 1971.
Despite high aspirations, the Metroliner cars proved to have poor reliability, with less than two-thirds of the fleet in service at many times. Four cars were successfully overhauled for improved operation in 1974, but the rebuilding cost more than the original purchase price of the cars. Thirty-three more cars were overhauled in 1979–1980. However, by this time, new AEM-7 locomotives pulling Amfleet cars could match Metroliner schedules with higher reliability. Metroliners were withdrawn from Metroliner service entirely in 1981; they served until 1988 on Keystone Service trains.
Despite their electrical flaws, the Metroliners proved mechanically sound. Amtrak ordered over 600 non-powered Amfleet cars in the mid-1970s. Beginning in 1987, Amtrak converted 23 former Metroliners for use as cab control cars on corridor trains. Fourteen more cars were used with minimal modifications: six as cab cars and eight as trailer coaches. Most former Metroliners were scrapped between 2003 and 2011. However, some cab cars remain in use on Keystone Service and Amtrak Hartford Line trains. Three former Metroliners have also been converted to technology testing or track measurement cars, and one more is used by Amtrak as a special-purpose business car. One original Metroliner is preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
History
Design and production
On August 9, 1965, with the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 pending, representatives from the Pennsylvania Railroad, the United States Department of Transportation, and a private consulting firm began setting specifications for an electric multiple unit high speed passenger train. The PRR and the DOT disagreed on several technical details. The PRR wanted cars capable of, while the DOT desired or even to beat Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen. The higher speed was chosen, but caused numerous design issues. The PRR wanted cars with cabs on both ends for maximum flexibility, while the DOT wanted 4-car sets; two-car sets with a cab on each end were chosen as a compromise. The Act was signed into law on September 30. The Johnson Administration saw the new service as political capital and pushed for an aggressive schedule.On May 6, 1966, the High Speed Ground Transportation project ordered 50 railcars from the Budd Company, with delivery beginning in September 1967. The PRR paid $10.4 million, with the remaining $9.6 million coming from the federal government. The order consisted of 20 coaches with Westinghouse propulsion systems, and 20 snack-bar coaches and 10 parlor cars with General Electric propulsion systems. Coaches had 76 seats, snack cars had 60 seats and parlor cars had 34 seats. On August 30, 1966, Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania announced plans to purchase 11 additional railcars for upgraded PRR regional service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The cars were ordered through Philadelphia commuter agency SEPTA, as the state was not permitted to contract directly with the PRR. The state, SEPTA, and PRR reached an agreement on November 3; the state and SEPTA would each pay $2 million, funded mostly by mass transit grants from the newly formed Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the PRR would receive a free 15-year lease of the cars. The PRR soon withdrew after complaints from the Red Arrow Lines and Capitol Trailways, and the HUD grants were later found not to be applicable to intercity service, but the order was still placed.
The ancestor of the Metroliner multiple unit railcar was the Budd Pioneer III which had been developed for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1958 as a new concept in long distance passenger service in the east. The cars used new propulsion technologies and lightweight construction in an effort to improve performance compared with older electric multiple unit technology. After a fleet of 55 improved Pioneer III cars referred to as Silverliners were ordered for commuter trains in the Philadelphia area, the United States Department of Transportation placed a follow-up order for 4 Silverliners, specially modified for high speed operation on the PRR's Northeast Corridor. Equipped with several modifications, including a semi-streamlined slab end on the front of the lead car, the experimental train ran a series of test runs, reaching a speed of on April 2, 1967. This success allowed Metroliner testing to begin.
The new railcars were built for high-floor boarding, with only one door on each car able to serve low platforms. Along with the M1 series built for New York commuter service at the same time, these were among the first high-floor-only railcars in mainline service in the country. High-level platforms were constructed at several stations beginning in 1967. In May 1967, an initial service date of October 29, 1967 was announced. The name "Metroliner" for the railcars was proposed in June, and one unit was displayed at the Budd plant in July.
The first Westinghouse-powered Metroliners were delivered to the testing location at Jenkintown station in the Philadelphia suburbs in September 1967, and immediately began testing on the Reading Company's West Trenton Line. After multiple failures of the control and propulsion systems at just, PRR executives pushed for the beginning of service to be delayed. On September 20, the start of service was postponed to January 1, 1968. The first two cars began testing on the PRR's main line on November 18, soon reaching speeds up to. The cars reached near Princeton Junction in New Jersey six days later, but the testing also indicated that the cars would not be able to operate anywhere near that speed in revenue service. On December 17, 1967, tests of Metroliners passing older MP54 railcars caused windows to be ripped out of the MP54s due to the pressure drop, indicating that the high-speed rolling stock might not mix well with legacy equipment.
On February 1, 1968, the PRR merged with New York Central Railroad to become Penn Central. The remainder of the cars were delivered with Penn Central logos, but retained the PRR-specified livery of gray paint with red pinstripes. On March 2, the first GE-powered Metroliners arrived for testing. The pantographs on the Westinghouse-powered cars would bounce on the aging catenary wires, then draw high currents due to improperly designed transformers. The GE-powered cars proved to have a superior pantograph design, but were still not fit for service. On March 12, entry into revenue service was delayed indefinitely. Testing was suspended entirely between June 24 and mid-July; tests with 6-car trains in July had severe issues with electrical arcing. The first combined test train of GE and Westinghouse cars ran on August 8.
In June 1968, an agreement was reached where the state Transportation Assistance Authority would pay $2 million and Penn Central would pay $2.5 million for the 11 Metroliners for Harrisburg service. On July 14, a 4-car train was tested on the line, with several demonstration runs for officials on August 21. In early October, several test trains proved the viability of the planned sub-3-hour schedules. Substation modifications later that month and a legal settlement between Budd and Penn Central in November paved the way for service to begin. On December 20, Penn Central announced that Metroliner service would begin on January 16, 1969.
Early service
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. Echoing problems encountered during testing, several early trains sucked windows off passing trains of MP54 cars. An eight-car train was tested on February 5, but it caused numerous circuit breaker trips and catenary outages, indicating that six cars was the practical limit on train length. Testing on the electrified mainline to New Haven, Connecticut, took place with some difficulties in February. The Westinghouse cars continued to lag behind the GE-powered cars; the former were first tested at with serious issues in February, and did not enter service until midyear.Service was gradually increased, including a non-stop round trip on a 2.5 hour schedule, which was added April 2, 1969. However, problems with the cars persisted; maximum speeds temporarily dropped from to soon after. Due to the condition of the track and signal system, the Federal Railroad Administration never allowed Metroliners to go faster than between Washington and New York. Still, they were the fastest trains in North America and provided speed, comfort and amenities that could compete with the airlines. Two years into the service, half of Metroliner passengers had switched from other modes, and 70% were men on business trips.
On February 25, 1970, the 11 Westinghouse-powered cars intended for Harrisburg service completed their performance testing. Penn Central refused to accept the cars, citing numerous technical issues with the cars and their general unsuitability for the service. They had worse acceleration than the Silverliners already in service, tended to overheat when making numerous closely spaced stops, and had difficulty climbing the grade out of Suburban Station. Additionally, the corridor lacked high-level platforms to effectively use the cars, and 15 substations would require expensive modifications. The 11 cars were unused for some time before Penn Central ultimately decided to lease the cars for use on the core New York–Washington service. They were moved back to the Budd plant for modifications in April. In July, the state authorized $100,000 to upgrade Silverliners for the Harrisburg service instead.
By March 1970, even as cars continued to be accepted, the DOT began considering modifying two cars under a test program. The DOT and Penn Central began holding meetings in May, deciding to modify one car of each propulsion type at first, followed by four additional cars. Out-of-service rates reached 40% and higher; In June, Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey began pushing the DOT to devote $5 million to the rebuild program to increase reliability. The official two-year demonstration program began on October 1. In December, a feasibility study of upgrading the cars for higher sustained speeds was initiated. By February 1971, top speed had been reduced further to.