Phase VII car repaint status

[TommyBNSF]

The day has finally arrived, as the first legacy car to receive Phase VII was released out of Beech Grove this morning, Viewliner I #62032. As such, as I said in the P42 Phase VII thread, I will make a new thread for the status of the Phase VII cars. Since the Superliners, Horizons, and Viewliners are maintained at Beech Grove, they'll be easier to keep track of than the Amfleets based out of Bear, but I'll try to keep an eye out for those as well. So far, just one repaint has happened, but I imagine that will change very soon.

Viewliner I
AMTK 62032 Iroquois River - 12/12/24

 

[cocojacoby]

So now after Phase III was reintroduced on all of the new Viewliners, Amtrak comes out with another new scheme? I prefer Phase III to be applied to all of the equipment but for crying out loud Amtrak, will you pick a scheme and stick with it? I hate the mixed up collection of paint schemes that make a train look like a ragtag fleet of unrelated equipment. A unified image is important in people's perception of a company's quality and reputation. Sorry but this is just maddening to me.

 

[zephyr17]

Amtrak itself is a pretty ragtag outfit, so that image fits its actual quality and reputation.

 

[Maglev]

It looks as if the designer forgot that passenger cars have windows. Just be thankful they're not doing a wrap...

 

[AmtrakBlue]

So now after Phase III was reintroduced on all of the new Viewliners, Amtrak comes out with another new scheme? I prefer Phase III to be applied to all of the equipment but for crying out loud Amtrak, will you pick a scheme and stick with it? I hate the mixed up collection of paint schemes that make a train look like a ragtag fleet of unrelated equipment. A unified image is important in people's perception of a company's quality and reputation. Sorry but this is just maddening to me.

This scheme matches with the Chargers are pulling the single level trains.

 

[Bob Dylan]

This scheme matches with the Chargers are pulling the single level trains.

It's still Butt Ugly!

 

[frequentflyer]

The day has finally arrived, as the first legacy car to receive Phase VII was released out of Beech Grove this morning, Viewliner I #62032. As such, as I said in the P42 Phase VII thread, I will make a new thread for the status of the Phase VII cars. Since the Superliners, Horizons, and Viewliners are maintained at Beech Grove, they'll be easier to keep track of than the Amfleets based out of Bear, but I'll try to keep an eye out for those as well. So far, just one repaint has happened, but I imagine that will change very soon.

Viewliner I
AMTK 62032 Iroquois River - 12/12/24

Really? Not much different than Phase IV.

And I agree a uniform livery is important for branding. The last time Amtrak had a unified look was Phase 3. Then CEO Graham Claytor made sure of it.

 

[Fenu S]

Here is some pictures my friend sent me. I guess the superliners will be something similar to this.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Excellent the status of First Class has returned.

 

[ST Saint]

Not in love with the random directions on the white lines. I'd rather have it all be the same direction or more subtle/vertical like the Airo livery is doing.
I also didn't expect to see red and I wonder if red will indicate where the doors are (flowing better on amfleet Is for example)? I fully expected them only to use blues through the stripe other than the bottom pinstripe.

Still, happy to see this livery start to roll out on cars since they really committed to it with all the P42s wearing it now.

 

[Cal]

t looks as if the designer forgot that passenger cars have windows.

How so?

I don't think it looks amazing but it looks fine.

 

[Tom C]

This scheme matches with the Chargers are pulling the single level trains.

And soon the P42s as well. I think it looks fine. The Phase IV look on the Viewliners was getting long in the tooth. Glad they did something to refresh the look a bit. If anything this will also finally get all the river name designation tags on the Viewliners 1s.

 

[Cal]

And soon the P42s as well

Some P42s already have it and they look SHARP.

 

[TommyBNSF]

I also didn't expect to see red and I wonder if red will indicate where the doors are (flowing better on amfleet Is for example)? I fully expected them only to use blues through the stripe other than the bottom pinstripe.

Yeah the red took me by surprise too. It could be for that, or possibly to indicate which end of the car is the front. The only thing is for your idea, that wouldn't really work with the Superliners since the doors are in the middle. Guess we'll have to wait for more car types to get it and see.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Excellent the status of First Class has returned.

Now we just need service that matches the status

 

[toddinde]

Not my favorite, but I guess it is what it is. I liked the return of Phase III.

 

[PrduPete]

I , too, prefer the Phase III look, but understand why they are going this way. The Phase V locomotives never matched the Phase IV cars, so if they did have Phase VII locomotives, it wouldn't be out of the question to have the cars be a different scheme.

Did they do anything to the inside of the car? Wonder if it was just a simple refresh or something more in-depth?

 

[mfastx]

Seems weird on this car because it basically just overlaps with the windows. Maybe it'll look better on other models. Add another livery variant to the ol' Amtrak consist!

 

[Maglev]

How so?

I don't think it looks amazing but it looks fine.

Two out of three white "swooshes" are truncated by the windows:

 

[cocojacoby]

Now this is more interesting:



https://www.pinterest.com/pin/viewl...aratr-ak-aratr-ak-ifunny--720224165431823893/

 

[ST Saint]

Yeah the red took me by surprise too. It could be for that, or possibly to indicate which end of the car is the front. The only thing is for your idea, that wouldn't really work with the Superliners since the doors are in the middle. Guess we'll have to wait for more car types to get it and see.

Follow up thought: maybe the red is unique for first class or other elevated service levels. I guess we won't know until we see more of it rolling out.

Edit:
Answered my own thought, it is going to indicate service by color:
https://railfan.com/amtrak-releases...qPBuMYwEiuDwS7SWyg_aem_q8RxBHMcPX8RkrUTyse08g

The car features the dark blue and red of the Phase VII livery separated by white arcs. It also debuts Amtrak’s new class of service accent colors to aid customers in wayfinding along platforms; red for first class, light blue for business class, and green for coach class.

 

[Seaboarder3023]

I had a feeling the VL-1s would be first to receive Phase VII. Do we know if the interiors have been refreshed as well? It's also nice to see them finally applying the River-series names after what, 10 years?

 

[Stevenz]

Really? Not much different than Phase IV.

And I agree a uniform livery is important for branding. The last time Amtrak had a unified look was Phase 3. Then CEO Graham Claytor made sure of it.

Yes, the marketing value/customer reaction is in the aesthetics of a complete consist.

What continues to bother me is the mismatch in height between cars and engines. I understand the march of progress and all but it looks like somebody bought the wrong parts.

 

[Literalman]

I think that David Gunn also lamented the non-matching paint schemes. I recall seeing the Carolinian once with matching paint schemes throughout the consist (owing to luck, not intention, I expect) and it looked good and professional. The white swooshes in the new scheme look like big raindrop splashes or meteorite strikes. ;-)

 

[Tom C]

Red will denote first class. Light blue will be business and green coach. It sounds like the plan is indeed to get this out on everything except basically the Avelia liberty sets.