Because of delayed arrival for work today due to the ice storm, I was able to ride to work in daylight and see things out the window. As we passed the yard in Ivy City (just north of Union Station) I noticed some unusual looking double-deckers in MARC livery. A quick check in Wikipedia confirmed that they were part a an order of ~50 "multi-level coaches" from Bombardier that started delivery last June. Have these cars entered service? I've never seen them, and I'm pretty much a daily rider.
New MARC Multilevel coaches
- Thread starter MARC Rider
- Start date
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Ryan
Court Jester
They were starting to arrive on the property last fall, I haven't seen one in revenue service yet.
They're tagged onto a NJT order, they're the same as their multilevels. They're going to replace the decrepit ex-METRA gallery cars (and the original plan was for them to replace some of the single level fleet, but MARC management wised up and realized that they're going to need all the rolling stock they can get to handle increasing demand.
They're tagged onto a NJT order, they're the same as their multilevels. They're going to replace the decrepit ex-METRA gallery cars (and the original plan was for them to replace some of the single level fleet, but MARC management wised up and realized that they're going to need all the rolling stock they can get to handle increasing demand.
MattW
Conductor
Now if we could only get them to wise up and tack on to the order for ACS-64s!
Ryan
Court Jester
That's very, very unlikely to happen unless Amtrak decides to charge significantly less for electricity.
MattW
Conductor
But won't they end up paying just as much if not more on maintenance by running the wheels off those MP36s trying to hit 90mph?
Ryan
Court Jester
Nope. Costs them twice as much to run the electrics, they can't wait to be rid of them.
I wish it were different, running diesels under the wire is Dumb, but they just can't afford to do anything different.
I wish it were different, running diesels under the wire is Dumb, but they just can't afford to do anything different.
MattW
Conductor
Even if they have to use two diesels where one electric would have sufficed?
Shawn Ryu
Conductor
They can only run electric in one line anyway.
Some pictures of the new bilevels have been posted to Facebook. Look pretty sharp!
Ryan
Court Jester
Sweet looking ride!
