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The Superliner is a double decker passenger car used by Amtrak on long haul trains that do not use the Northeast Corridor. The initial cars were built by Pullman-Standard in the late 1970s and a second order was built in the mid 1990s by Bombardier Transportation. more...

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As delivered, the cars came in various configurations, including coach, diner, and sleeper.

History

When money was made available for Amtrak to acquire new cars, plans were made to acquire bi-level cars based on the 1956 Budd-built El Capitan Hi-Levels operated by the Santa Fe Railway (which were purchased by Amtrak when formed in 1971). The initial order of 235 Superliner I cars was placed with Chicago coachbuilder Pullman Standard on April 2 1975, later bring increased to 284 cars for $241 million in total. The first car was delivered in October 1978, and they made their debut on the Chicago - Milwaukee service on February 26, 1979. The coaches were the first cars delivered, so it was not until October 28, 1979 that the first Superliner equipped long haul train ran, the westbound Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle. The last car of the order, a sleeper, was delivered at the end of July 1981 and also the last car ever built by Pullman and was named in honor of the Company's founder, George Mortimer Pullman.

When the Superliners began to arrive in the late 1970s, many Hi-Level coaches were converted into Coach-Dorms for crew use on Superliner trains. These were replaced in the 1990s by new Superliner II Transition Sleepers. In recent years, five El Capitan lounge cars were refurbished as the Coast Starlight's Pacific Parlour first-class lounge cars. These cars have a service bar, booths, and chairs on the upper level, and were recently upgraded to have a theatre on the lower level. All other Hi-Level cars are off the company's active roster.

The Superliner II fleet of 140 cars was built in 1993-94 at a cost of $340 million by Bombardier in Barre, Vermont, who acquired the designs and patents from Pullman in 1987. The introduction of these new cars permitted the use of Superliner cars on east coast routes such as the Capitol Limited and AutoTrain.

Design

The Superliners were the first Amtrak car type to be equipped with an on-board waste treatment and disposal system linked to all toilets. Initially the cars could not be worked east of Chicago due to limited overhead clearances, but by the 1980s many eastern railroads had raised clearances on their tracks to permit tri-level auto-carriers and double stack container trains, which also permitted the operation of the Superliners.

Read more at Wikipedia.org