Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 34, 2015

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 and represented an attempt by Amtrak to update its fleet with faster, more modern trains. The first batch, known as RTG, were built by the French firm ANF and entered service on multiple routes in the Midwestern United States in 1973. The new trains led to ridership increases wherever they were used; the fixed consist proved a detriment as demand outstripped supply. The high cost of operating the trains led to their withdrawal from the Midwest in 1981. The second batch, known as RTL, were of a similar design but manufactured by Rohr Industries, an American company. These entered service on the Empire Corridor in the state of New York in 1976. The RTLs remained in service there through the 1990s, supplemented by several rebuilt RTGs. In the late 1990s and early 2000s New York and Amtrak partnered to rebuild the RTLs for high-speed service; this project failed and the last RTL trainsets left revenue service in 2003. After the settlement of legal issues New York sold the remaining trainsets for scrap in 2012.