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By 1888 the Mantua Junction was at capacity. In 1910 the PRR built two duck-under tunnels to allow trains to reach the Connecting Railway without blocking the Main Line. In 1935, the interlocking reached its final form in conjunction with electrification and the construction of 30th Street Station and Suburban Station.
In the crescent-shaped pocket between the junction and the river was the Philadelphia Zoo, which gave the interlocking its name. The former Zoological Garden station was located next to the interlocking to serve visitors to the Zoo.
The Keystone Corridor is a 349-mile (562 km) railroad corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that consists of two rail lines: Amtrak and SEPTA's Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg main line, which hosts SEPTA's Paoli/Thorndale Line commuter rail service, and Amtrak's "Keystone" and "Pennsylvanian" inter-city trains; and the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line. The corridor was originally the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Since 2006, the line has been one of the high-speed corridors designated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The track from Lancaster to Parkesburg permits trains of up to , while the section between Paoli and Philadelphia allows .
Amtrak runs two intercity rail services along the Keystone Corridor: the Harrisburg-to-New York City "Keystone Service" and the Pittsburgh-to-New York City "Pennsylvanian". SEPTA operates daily Paoli/Thorndale commuter rail service between Philadelphia and Thorndale on the Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg main line. The towns along this stretch form a socio-cultural region called the "Philadelphia Main Line".
The tracks from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg are owned and maintained by Norfolk Southern, which acquired them from Conrail. They include the Horseshoe Curve west of Altoona. The tracks between Harrisburg and Philadelphia are owned and maintained by Amtrak, and are the only part of the Keystone Corridor that is electrified. The tracks join the Northeast Corridor at Zoo Interlocking near the Philadelphia Zoo and 30th Street Station.
The right-of-way that would become the Keystone Corridor was mainly laid by two railroads. The tracks east of Dillerville, just west of Lancaster, were originally the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, part of the state-owned Main Line of Public Works. From Lancaster west to Harrisburg, the tracks were laid by the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad. Except for minor realignments, today's Keystone Corridor runs along the same path.
Both lines eventually became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) main line.
In 1915, the PRR electrified the line from Philadelphia's Broad Street Station to Paoli, then the west end of commuter service. Electrification west of Paoli to Harrisburg came in the 1930s, after the PRR completed electrifying its New York-Washington, D.C. section (the present-day Northeast Corridor). The total cost of electrification topped $200 million, which was financed by government-supported loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Public Works Administration.
Passenger service remained unprofitable, returned to profitability during World War II, and then slumped again. The PRR overhauled much of the right-of-way in the 1950s, but chose to keep paying a stable dividend rather than reinvest in infrastructure. The result was dilapidated stations, slow, disjointed track conditions, and antiquated rolling stock which frequently broke down.
In 1968, the PRR merged with the New York Central to become Penn Central, which declared bankruptcy in 1970. In 1976, Amtrak took ownership of the line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg while Conrail (the merger of Penn Central, the Reading Company, and several other Class I railroads) took ownership of the remaining part of the line and the many branches, both electrified and non-electrified, that the Penn Central had owned. Amtrak took over the express Harrisburg-New York intercity rail service in 1971, while Conrail, under SEPTA auspices, continued Harrisburg-Philadelphia commuter services. In 1983, SEPTA took over all commuter services and extended operations to Parkesburg (later truncated in 1996 to Downingtown, but later extended to Thorndale).
The line between Philadelphia and Lancaster was four tracks until the 1960s, when the PRR removed two of the tracks west of Paoli. The line is now two tracks from Paoli to Harrisburg, save for a three-track section between the Glen and Park interlockings, and a four-track section between the Downs and Thorn interlockings.
As of 2004, most of the track was limited to a maximum speed of , except for a few 90 mile per hour (145 km/h)) sections between Downingtown and Lancaster. There are also curves which require slower speeds (especially in the section between Merion and Overbrook), and speed restrictions within interlocking limits.
In 1999, the Keystone Corridor was formally recognized as a "designated high speed corridor" by the FRA, as part of the TEA-21 transportation bill. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will fund half of the project's costs, and Amtrak will fund the other half.
A summary appears in an FRA report.
Construction on the USD $145 million project began on March 7, 2005 and was completed in Fall, 2006. Amtrak's press releases have summarized the improvements as:
The installation of concrete ties also included replacement of the old jointed rail with new continuous welded rail (136 RE), track surfacing, and alignment. Track surfacing is adjusting the vertical profile of the two rails, leveling the rails on straight track and introducing superelevation (banking) in curves. The are broken down as:
Amtrak replaced the signal and communications system and rebuilt the overhead catenary wire and upgraded electrical substations to provide the power needed to operate several electric trains simultaneously on this line. Since October, 2006, Amtrak, having sufficient "Acela" high-speed trainsets, started using electric push-pull trainsets for the first time since the mid-1990s. Using AEM7 locomotives and former Metroliner m.u. coaches modified into a push-pull cab-coach (with the locomotive "pulling" westbound trains and "pushing" eastbound), the electrified service is currently used on the Harrisburg-New York "Keystone" service, while the Genesis diesel locomotives are still used for the Pittsburgh-New York "Pennsylvanian" service. As on the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak trains between Paoli and Overbrook use the high-speed inner rails for normal operations.
In March 2011, Pennsylvania received a $750,000 grant from the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program to investigate extending high-speed electrified service from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.
At-grade crossings with roads between Philadelphia and Harrisburg remained until 2014. In July 1999, PennDOT budgeted $9 million for this project to eliminate the three remaining crossings; however, these funds were later used for other projects. One of the crossings was in Elizabethtown and another in Mount Joy. The third, between Mount Joy and Lancaster, was blocked off using fencing and jersey barriers. Additional funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was used to complete the elimination of all at-grade crossings. The last was closed in 2014. Private crossings remain between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. There are still grade crossings between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
There have been earlier studies by the USDOT and FRA of the Keystone Corridor, and these studies contain proposals or speculations which might not be in the currently funded projects. Some of these ideas are below.
Amtrak service to Suburban Station, which is in Center City Philadelphia, ended in 1988. An early study says that PennDOT used Suburban Station as the Philadelphia endpoint for the 90-minute service to Harrisburg. Restoring service to Suburban Station may increase ridership but would require using the upper level of 30th Street Station and either scheduling trains to turn at Suburban Station or to continue through the Center City Commuter Tunnel (with Amtrak trains turning around at Wayne Junction).
Bypassing 30th Street Station by using the New York-Pittsburgh Subway would allow trains to skip a time-consuming stop and reverse of directions at 30th St Station and allow fast service between New York and Harrisburg. Historically, the PRR fast trains going to NY from the west would bypass 30th St Station, and passengers for Philadelphia would change trains at North Philadelphia. One study suggested two daily electric-train round-trips between New York and Harrisburg with stops in North Philadelphia and Ardmore, a routing last used by Keystone trains in 1994.
The four-track section between Overbrook and Paoli is numbered sequentially from the southernmost track (number 1 track) to the northernmost track (number 4 track).
Between March 7 and June 27, 2005, Amtrak worked on the number 4 track between Lancaster and Parkesburg, and from June 27 to September 2, 2005, they worked on number 1 track. A work gang with a track laying system (TLS) installed concrete crossties, new continuous welded rail, and new ballast, allowing for . The track layout at Lancaster station was simplified so that trains no longer have to take a diverging route to access the station platforms. Because tracks 2 and 3 have been removed, tracks 1 and 4 are the only tracks in this section.
Between October 3, 2005 and mid-December, Amtrak worked on the number 2 track from Paoli to a point between Narberth and Merion stations. On March 20, 2006, Amtrak started working on the number 3 track, starting within Paoli interlocking and working east towards Overbrook. As of April 6, 2006, a track laying system (TLS) has completed work to approximately milepost 16.7. 110-mph service started on October 30, 2006 following completion of a $145 million upgrade of the 104-mile line. Push-pull express trains will cut journey time from the current two hours to 90 minutes. Local service will improve to 105 minutes. Three weekday and two weekend roundtrips will be added as well.
The busiest part of the Keystone Corridor is the segment between Harrisburg and New York City, which sees multiple trains per day.
The following Amtrak rail lines serve Keystone Corridor stations:
SEPTA Regional Rail operates commuter rail service on the Keystone Corridor between 30th Street Station and Thorndale as the Paoli/Thorndale Line service. Efforts to re-extend the line to Parkesburg and even to Atglen were under discussion by state Congressman Jim Gerlach, R-PA 6, and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. On March 7, 2019, it was announced that SEPTA service would be extended back to Coatesville "in the near future", with a new Coatesville station to be built.
The Cynwyd Line service also uses the line between 30th Street Station and the Valley interlocking. The proposed Schuylkill Valley Metro service to Reading would have also used this line. There is also a proposal to shift the line to eliminate a deteriorating truss bridge.
A project to bring commuter rail service between Harrisburg and Lancaster called CorridorOne is in the early stages of planning.
SEPTA's capital budget for fiscal year 2006 describes an $80.594 million project coordinated with the Amtrak project. SEPTA's effort to improve tracks 1 and 4 between Zoo and Paoli interlockings, will include:
The "Broadway Limited", a train that operated between Chicago and New York, used the Keystone Corridor between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and the Northeast Corridor between Philadelphia and New York. Originally a Pennsylvania Railroad train, this route was discontinued by Amtrak in 1995 but later restarted by the passenger rail company and renamed the "Three Rivers". The "Three Rivers" was discontinued in 2005, eliminating direct passenger rail service between Philadelphia and Chicago. (Amtrak's current Chicago-to-Washington, D.C. service, the Capitol Limited, uses the rail line west of Pittsburgh).
Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008
The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (orinally , passed as division B of ) is a law that reauthorized Amtrak and authorized the United States Department of Transportation to provide grants for operating costs and capital expenses and to repay Amtrak's long-term debt and capital leases. It required Amtrak to adopt cost and performance metrics with regard to its intercity trains and established the Northeast Corridor Commission to govern Amtrak’s shared services along the Northeast Corridor.
The law required Amtrak to develop a modern financial and accounting reporting system and to submit a five-year financial plan and budget to the Inspector General. It authorizes Amtrak to restructure its long-term debt and leases by negotiating with holders of that debt.
Amtrak must work with the Surface Transportation Board to develop metrics and standards for performance of intercity service. The STB is also authorized to award damages to Amtrak in cases where freight railroads, on whose tracks Amtrak operates, do not provide preference to Amtrak traffic which may result in significant delays. Under Section 212 of the law, the Surface Transportation Board was permitted to appoint an arbitrator to settle disputes in certain cases.
Amtrak is required to rank the performance of its long-distance routes and develop performance improvement plans for those routes that underperform.
Amtrak is required to develop a methodology for allocation of costs on such routes and allocate costs appropriately to those states. States may select a different provider for those services and may agree with Amtrak on the usage of its facilities for those providers.
Section 212 created the Northeast Corridor Commission and mandated the Commuter and Intercity Rail Cost Allocation Policy which provides for a methodology of allocating costs to all users along the Northeast Corridor including commuter rail service.
The DOT is authorized to make grants to states for the benefit of intercity passenger rail service. Funds may also be authorized to establish a program for development of high-speed rail corridors.
In 2011, the Association of American Railroads files a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate the terms of Section 212 as unconstitutional. The AAR claimed that the law gave a private party the ability to regulate the conduct of another private party. In 2015, United States Supreme Court ruled that Amtrak was effectively a government entity and remanded the case back to the District Court. In 2016, the court voided the metrics published by Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration in May 2010. In 2017, the District Court ruled that the arbitration provision of the law was unconstitutional, but severed that provision from Section 212, allowing the remainder of the section to take effect.
Amtrak filed suit against the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to force an increase in rent of land adjacent to its tracks along the Northeast Corridor that SEPTA uses for SEPTA Regional Rail stations and parking lots.
In 2016, Amtrak, citing Section 212, demanded that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority pay $30 million for Amtrak’s costs in servicing the Attleboro Line, which is owned by MBTA. MBTA citing an existing agreement in which Amtrak was permitted to use the line for its trains and agreed to maintain the line at no cost. In a settlement, Amtrak and MBTA agreed to share costs along the Attleboro line and Amtrak would continue to allow the use South Station with cost sharing for use of the facility.
Amtrak has used a variety of liveries on its rolling stock since taking over intercity passenger rail service in the United States in 1971. A series of seven schemes termed "Phases", first introduced in 1972, have seen the widest use. Phases primarily use geometric arrangements of red, white, and blue—the national colors of the United States—part of Amtrak's patriotic visual identity.
Amtrak began operations in May 1971 with a mixture of equipment still painted in the distinct colored liveries of the freight railroads that relinquished their passenger service to Amtrak. Amtrak picked and chose equipment that it determined to be in the best condition, and elected not to keep the same rolling stock on the same routes. Since this resulted in trains with mismatched liveries, which contrasted with the previous coordinated liveries, that period was later known as the Rainbow Era.
To build the brand of Amtrak as a unified passenger railroad, the rolling stock was gradually repainted into a new system-wide livery starting around 1972. Successive liveries are known as Phases and are sequentially numbered using Roman numerals – a nomenclature that began with model railroaders and was later officially adopted by Amtrak. Most current locomotives use the 2000-introduced Phase V, while passenger cars use the 2002-introduced Phase VI. A modified Phase III scheme was introduced for some equipment in 2013. Non-revenue equipment uses bright lime green or a variation of Phase V.
Some routes financially supported by individual states use service-specific liveries to provide a more regionalized distinction. The three routes under the Amtrak California branch—the "Capitol Corridor", "Pacific Surfliner", and "San Joaquin"—use equipment painted in several custom schemes, as do the "Cascades" and "Piedmont". Locomotives for the eight Amtrak Midwest services also use a custom scheme, with a matching scheme planned for under-construction passenger cars.
Amtrak has repainted equipment in unique livery for special uses, including its 40th anniversary in 2011 and to promote the Operation Lifesaver safety campaign. Equipment has also been wrapped for advertising promotions. When testing equipment from other railroads, Amtrak has mostly kept existing livery, though some longer-term tests used Phase schemes.
When Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail service on May 1, 1971, it inherited a collection of rolling stock from twenty different railroads, each with its own distinct colors and logos. Needing only to operate 184 of the 366 trains that had been run nationwide by the private railroads, Amtrak was able to pick the 1,200 best passenger cars to lease from the 3,000 that the private railroads had owned. This equipment was haphazardly mixed to form consists, resulting in trains with the mismatched colors of several predecessor railroads. This "Rainbow Era" was short-lived; Amtrak began purchasing some of the leased equipment in mid-1971, setting the stage for wholesale repainting from 1972 to 1974.
Introduced in 1972, Phase I was the first paint scheme to be implemented system-wide on Amtrak's trains. Except for a small number of locomotives that had been painted into experimental and promotional paint schemes, it was the first new paint for most equipment under Amtrak. The scheme was part of Amtrak's larger move to a visual identity featuring the national colors of red, white, and blue. Amtrak did not assign nomenclature for its livery; model railroaders began referring to this first paint scheme as Phase I and numbering all subsequent phases sequentially using Roman numerals. Amtrak later made the Phase numbering scheme the official terminology.
Locomotives were painted a light gray ("Platinum Mist") with a black roof, the Amtrak "Pointless Arrow" chevron logo on the side, and a red nose (which led to a "Bloody Nose" nickname). Passenger cars were silver (or left bare stainless steel), with a red and bright blue stripe (bracketed by thin white stripes) at window level and the chevron logo at one or both ends. A number of variants were made for non-revenue locomotives, GG1 locomotives, Turbotrain and Turboliner trainsets, and self-propelled RDC and Metroliner railcars.
The Phase II paint scheme was introduced in late 1974 with the arrival of the new GE E60 locomotives. The red nose and chevron logo on locomotives were replaced with stripes similar to passenger cars. Most passenger cars were essentially unchanged from Phase I, except for the removal of the chevron logo; new Sightseer lounges had a higher stripe with an angled transition on each end.
Phase III, introduced in 1976, is still used on some equipment. On both passenger cars and locomotives, the outer white pinstripes were removed while the inner stripe was widened, resulting in red, white, and blue stripes of equal width. Turboliners and the LRC test train were painted in white, with the stripes at the bottom of the train. This scheme was introduced "for safety, graphic aid and saving money", as the white band was highly reflective and provided a place for car information, and the standard widths made better use of raw material.
Several types of locomotives that were acquired later were given variations on Phase III. AEM-7 locomotives had the blue stripe expanded to cover the entire lower part of the body. On Dash 8-32BWH locomotives, a deeper blue and red was used; the stripes had additional pinstripes and angled upward across the middle of the body. The similarity to the Pepsi logo led to the units being nicknamed "Pepsi Cans". Genesis locomotives had a lighter roof and narrower white stripe; the stripes angled downward on the sloped nose, and faded towards the rear. That variant was created by industrial designer Cesar Vergara, who also designed the angular bodies of the locomotives.
In October 2013, Amtrak introduced a new variant of Phase III with the production of the new Viewliner II cars, the first of which entered service in 2015. The Viewliner cars have some changes from previous Phase III passenger cars, including a red reflective stripe at the bottom and a newer ("Travelmark") logo. In January 2016, Amtrak revealed a P32AC-DM that was repainted into Phase III, similar to that of the heritage units 145 and 822, but featuring modern logos and "Empire Service" emblems on the sides. All P32AC-DMs will eventually be repainted into this scheme, with costs shared between Amtrak and the state of New York.
Beginning in 1993, Phase IV was introduced as a striking departure from the traditional red, white, and blue style seen previously. Brought into service with the delivery of the newer Superliner II cars, Phase IV has two thin red stripes and a thick dark blue stripe. In 1997, Amtrak extended the scheme to locomotives, initially GE P42DC diesel locomotives on Northeast Corridor services.
Phase V was introduced with the arrival of the "Acela Express" high-speed train sets in 2000 and is currently used on most locomotives. Locomotives are painted light gray, with a blue stripe (darker than Phases I–III, but lighter than IV) at the top and a thin red reflective sill stripe at the bottom. The blue stripe has a wavy bottom on Genesis locomotives and "Acela Express" power cars, and a flat bottom on other locomotives and ex-F40PH non-powered control units (NPCUs). The Amtrak "Travelmark" logo is painted near the front or rear of the unit.
"Acela Express" trainsets have grey and stainless steel bodies with the lower red stripe, with the blue roof and Acela logo on the power cars only. The Acela passenger cars have no blue stripe; colored shapes called "mobiles", based on the shape of the Acela logo, are used to indicate the type of car (Business Class, Cafe Bistro, or First Class). A similar scheme was created for Amfleet coaches used on the "Acela Regional", with a window stripe (light blue for Coach Class and baggage cars, blue for Business Class and cafe cars) and mobiles to indicate the type of service. The rebuilt Turboliners also had a version of the Phase V livery, with similar window stripes and mobiles.
Non-passenger cars like "Auto Train" auto racks are all-gray except for the logo and red stripe; Express Box Cars had blue stripes on top and bottom.
Phase VI (also commonly referred to as Phase IVb) was introduced in 2002, and is currently used on most passenger cars. It retains the same stripe style as Phase IV: wide window stripes on single-level cars, and narrow stripes on Superliners. The red reflective sill stripe and mid-tone blue on Phase V are used. Single-level cars have white logos within the blue stripe, while Superliners have blue logos below the stripes.
Five of the first six Siemens Charger ALC-42 locomotives will have a "transitional" Phase VI scheme consisting of a mostly blue body with red and black around the windshield, and a red and silver chevrons at the rear.
Phase VII will be introduced in 2021 as the new livery for most Amtrak equipment, with the new Siemens Charger ALC-42 units being the first to wear the paint scheme. The scheme will retain the same red, blue, and dark blue colors seen on earlier liveries, separated by white lines curved like on the Amtrak "travelmark" logo.
Thirteen state-funded corridor routes — eight Midwest routes, three Amtrak California routes, and the "Cascades" and "Piedmont" — are operated by Amtrak using equipment that is largely owned by the states in which they operate, and painted in custom schemes that deviate from the national Amtrak livery. Several other route-specific paint schemes have been used in the past.
The "Pacific Surfliner" uses Charger SC-44 locomotives and Surfliner cars in a deep blue and gray paint scheme. The upper half of the passenger cars are deep blue with a white pinstriping, plus a white pinstripe on the bottom of the cars. The stripes continue onto locomotives, with the blue stripe narrowing and curving under the black-painted cab area. Lettering is white and placed in the blue stripe. The Charger locomotives are painted in the same shape as the Northern California units but using the "Pacific Surfliner" color scheme. Amtrak wrapped F59PHI 457 in a special scheme to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "Pacific Surfliner" and the train's ridership surpassing 25 million. The locomotive's new scheme was released on May 8, 2010, for National Train Day.
The "Cascades" service uses seven Talgo trainsets, F59PHI and Charger SC-44 locomotives, and ex-F40PH NPCUs painted in a brown, light tan, and dark green scheme - the only revenue equipment not painted in a blue-and-gray-based palette. The five older Talgo VI trainsets have the passenger cars split evenly between tan on top, brown in middle, and dark green on bottom. The transition baggage cars at the end have the green curve above the other colors, where it matches with a green curve on the older locomotives and NPCUs. The scheme was created by industrial designer Cesar Vergara, who also styled the GE Genesis locomotive.
On the newer Charger SC-44 locomotives, the green stripe is narrower and runs along the top and over the cab. One trainset was originally painted in blue, silver, and white for a Los Angeles-Las Vegas service that was never implemented. In 2016, one NPCU, #90250, was wrapped in Seattle Seahawks livery for several months. The newer Series 8 trainsets are painted similarly to the older sets. One end has a cab car, where the brown and green stripes come to a point, with the top of the cab also painted green.
The Charger SC-44 locomotives used on the eight Amtrak Midwest routes (, , , , , , , and ) have a blue front with a halftone transition into the gray side, with a red sill stripe. Siemens Venture passenger cars under construction for the services will have a matching gray scheme with halftone blue transitions at the end of the window level, with a wider red sill stripe.
The state-owned equipment used on the "Piedmont" is painted in North Carolina state colors, with wide blue stripes on the passenger cars and blue fronts on the locomotives.
EMD E8 No. 4316 and coach 1589 were painted for display in New York when Amtrak began service in May 1971; they saw later use on the "Broadway Limited". The locomotive was painted black; the Chevron "pointless arrow" logo on each side wrapped around the front with blue and white safety stripes. Amtrak has retroactively referred to this paint scheme as the "Day 1" livery.
The 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train consisted of P40DC locomotive No. 822, NPCU No. 406, modified Budd 10-6 heritage sleeper/Crew Dorm No. 10020 "Pacific Bend", three heritage baggage cars used to house exhibits, and Amfleet cafe car No. 85999, used as a gift shop. The whole train was painted in Phase III.
In June 2013, P42DC #42 was painted in a red, white, black, and dark blue scheme with a large logo on the side saying "America's Railroad Salutes our Veterans". A blue band near the wheelbase contains 50 white stars. ACS-64 No. 642 and NPCUs Nos. 90208 and 90221 received similar paint schemes in 2015 and 2016.
On March 16, 2021, Amtrak announced the release of six heritage paint schemes, all with an "Amtrak 50" logo on the side, to be applied to five Genesis locomotives and one Charger ALC-42 locomotive. The liveries include heritage versions of the black "Day 1" livery on ALC-42 No. 301, a Phase I livery, a Phase III "Pepsi Can" livery, a Phase V livery on P42 No. 46, and a Phase VI livery that will be similar to the first ALC-42 units. The sixth scheme was "Midnight Blue," a dark blue livery on P42 No. 100 celebrating employees who "keep passengers moving across the nation all throughout the night").
Beginning in 1976, Amtrak work train equipment was painted safety orange with black undersides. Light grey livery with a red bottom stripe, similar to Phase V non-passenger cars, was introduced for work train cars in 2004. Safety yellow livery was introduced for maintenance of way equipment and roadway vehicles in 2001; it was replaced with a pale lime around 2004, and a brighter lime around 2013. Non-revenue locomotives typically use variations of the Phase paint schemes to make them visually distinct from revenue locomotives while maintaining consistent styles.
In 1997, Amtrak bought 50 rebuilt boxcars to supplement its newly built Express Box Car fleet. The rebuilt cars arrived in their original Southern Pacific Olive Green paint scheme, rather than the Phase V scheme of the newer cars, though some were later repainted.
Since the late 1990s, Amtrak has occasionally rented advertising space on the exterior of its passenger equipment. The ads sometimes take the form of wraps rather than true paint schemes. Customers have included fast food restaurants, auto manufacturers, television networks, and politicians. In some cases, the advertisements were on equipment rented for private use, rather than on equipment in normal revenue service. Notable temporary advertisements have included:
Amtrak has tested a number of types of off-the-shelf equipment on the Northeast Corridor and short corridors. Some of these have been painted fully in Amtrak livery:
Other equipment largely retained their paint schemes from usage elsewhere:
The term drumhead refers to a type of removable sign that was prevalent on North American railroads of the first half of the 20th century. The sign was mounted at the rear of passenger trains, and consisted of a box with internal illumination that shone through a tinted panel bearing the logo of the railroad or specific train. Since the box and the sign were usually circular in shape and resembled small drums, they came to be known as drumheads.
Railroad drumheads were removable so that they could be mounted on different passenger cars (usually on the rear of observations), as needed for specific trains.
Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (WVU PRT) is a personal rapid transit (PRT) system in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. The system connects the three Morgantown campuses of West Virginia University (WVU) and the city's downtown area.
Developed from the Alden staRRcar and built by a consortium led by Boeing Vertol, the driverless system was a government-funded experiment in PRT systems. Upon its opening in 1975 with three stations, it had a fitful start, being three years behind schedule and costing 3–4 times more than estimated. It was expanded in 1978 to its current five stations, two maintenance depots, and over 70 vehicles. Like all PRT systems, stations are built on sidings, which allows vehicles to bypass stations and permits express trips between any two station pairs.
While the system achieved reliability upwards of 98% for most of its life, its reliability declined in the 2000sdipping to 90% by 2015and it gained a reputation for unreliability. In response, a renewal project was approved in 2012, which has so far replaced the vehicle control and propulsion systems, replaced parts of the power supply, and repaired other infrastructure. A new vehicle control system is due to be commissioned by 2018, and the vehicle fleet will also be replaced.
Morgantown is a small city with about 30,000 permanent residents, with close to 140,000 in the metropolitan area. WVU adds 28,000 seasonal residents from August through May. As WVU expanded in the 1960s, geographic constraintsthe city is situated in a mountain valley along the Monongahela Riverforced WVU to build a second campus away in Evansdale. Free busing was offered to move students between the campuses, but all the roads led through the city center, creating gridlock more typical of a megacity.
In the late 1960s, Samy Elias, who led WVU's industrial engineering department, learned of experiments with PRT in the U.S. after the HUD reports were published. A minor PRT craze was being set off by a combination of federal funding and estimates that showed a PRT system would be far less expensive to build and install than any other form of mass transit. Elias felt a PRT would be a perfect solution to the traffic problems in the city.
Gathering support from WVU, the City of Morgantown, and West Virginia's congressional delegation, Elias arranged a $50,000 development grant from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) for a comparative study of three PRT systems: the Monocab, Dashaveyor, and the Alden staRRcar. The Alden staRRcar was found to be the most suitable system for Morgantown.
Political pressure by Senator Robert Byrd led Secretary John A. Volpe of the then-new United States Department of Transportation to propose that Morgantown be used as an experimental site for PRT development. President Richard Nixon had expressed strong support of the PRT concept, and Volpe was trying to arrange to have an experimental system well underway before the next presidential election, in November 1972.
Examining the proposals, the UMTA decided that Alden was far too small to be able to handle the job, and arranged for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to take over as systems management role, signing a contract with them in December 1970. Boeing Vertol was selected to build the vehicles, Bendix Corporation supplied the control systems, and F.R. Harris Engineering would design and build the guideway, stations, and other facilities.
The original estimates for the system were $15–20 million. But having set a deadline based on political considerations, rather than technical, the system had to be rushed through to completion as soon as possible. JPL, used to running large engineering projects with a stepped approach, had to abandon the study stage and move the project directly to engineering tests.
Numerous problems cropped up as a test system was set up at Boeing's plants, notably the requirement to heat the guideways to melt the snow that collected in the U-shaped guideways, resulting in costly changes to the design. By the time the original deadline passed, the system was already massively over-budget and nowhere near ready for buildout. Instead of a feather in Nixon's cap, the system became a political chess piece and was derided in the press as a white elephant.
There were large cost overruns during the development of the system, and it was not until 1974 that the system had matured technically. Construction of the first guideway in Morgantown started that year, and was completed the next. The Phase I system began operations in 1975, with a final cost of $62 million, four times the estimate. It consisted of of guideway, 45 vehicles, 3 stations, and a maintenance/control facility.
Service was interrupted during the 1978–1979 school year for a system expansion, dubbed Phase II, during which WVU provided bus service between the campuses. The system was extended from the "Engineering" station towards new stations at "Towers" (dormitories) and the WVU Medical Center/Mountaineer Field. Phase II cost $64 million, bringing the total for the entire system to $130 million. Upon its completion, the system had 71 vehicles, of guideway, and 5 stations. One existing station had also been expanded, and a second maintenance facility was added.
Although the system's construction ran far over budget, it still proved to be what its designers had claimed: a reliable system of automated transit that was inexpensive to operate. It has offered on-time service rates far better than the bus services it replaced, and eliminated the gridlock that had locked up the city center. Moreover, no injuries were reported for the first 42 years of operation, until the first reported accident in November 2016. From July 2005 to June 2006, about 2.25 million rides were taken on the PRT. As of November 2007, the PRT transports about 16,000 riders per day. The record for most riders in a day is 31,280, set on August 21, 2006. In 2003, about 60% of costs were covered by the 50-cent fares.
Morgantown's economy boomed in the 2000s and the city was noted for having the lowest municipal unemployment rate in the U.S. Mayor Ronald Justice said, "We're a small town with big traffic issues, and the PRT could be the reason we're able to continue our growth."
There are two proposals to extend the line from both ends: one would extend southward to the new commercial and shopping area being developed as part of a riverfront revitalization project, while a longer extension is being considered to the northwest to connect a new research park. If both extensions are completed, at an estimated $30–40 million a mile, the system would almost double in length.
On November 30, 2016, the system had its first reported accident when two PRT cars were involved in a crash between the Beechurst and Walnut stations. There were six passengers on board and two were treated for minor injuries. Service to Walnut station was suspended for several days while the incident was investigated.
On February 10, 2020, two PRT passengers, and WVU students, were taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital for injuries due to a boulder that dislodged from the nearby hillside striking a PRT car. One student on the PRT was seriously injured and suffered multiple pelvic fractures. A driver, on nearby Mon Boulevard, was also taken to the hospital after their vehicle collided with another boulder that was part of the same disturbance.
The guideway is a dedicated roadway for rubber-tired vehicles that allows close separation between vehicles. It is a network that connects all stations and the maintenance facility. The guideway is used mostly by the PRT vehicles except in an emergency where maintenance workers can drive a car up to tow a non-functioning PRT vehicle off the guideway.
The guideway is a concrete structure with about half of its length elevated. It has three-phase 575 VAC, 60-Hz propulsion power rails on the sidewall that are equipped with electric heater for cold weather operations. Below the power rails is a steering rail that allows the guidewheel of PRT vehicles to be pressed against to steer along the guideway. Communication induction loops and guideway heating pipes are located on the road surface.
The system has 73 vehicles that resemble small buses. They are long, high and wide. Weighing , they are powered by a motor that allows them to reach .