Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 44, 2017

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 150 mph - what would have been the first high speed rail service in the Western Hemisphere. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) 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 their eponymous Metroliner service on January 16, 1969. Amtrak took over the service in 1971. 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. but 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 Metroliners were withdrawn from Metroliner service entirely in 1981; they served until 1988 on Keystone Service trains.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. 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 8 as trailer coaches. Most former Metroliners were scrapped between 2003 and 2011. However, some cab cars remain in use on Keystone Service and Shuttle 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.