Amfleet I

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After 40-plus years, Amfleet I replacements sought

Amtrak on Jan. 18 released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new fleet of single-level passenger cars to replace its dependable but decades-old, 470-unit stable of Amfleet I and ex-Metroliner cars, which were converted from electric-multiple-units years ago. The Amfleet I cars date to 1975, while the ex-Metroliner equipment entered service in January 1969 for Amtrak predecessor Penn Central (PC predecessor Pennsylvania Railroad ordered this equipment in 1966).

Amfleet cars: They just keep going and going and going…

How many times can Amtrak spruce up its aging yet dependable Amfleet* cars, originally supplied by the long-defunct Budd Company in the 1970s and 1980s, and based on an electric multiple-unit design the Pennsylvania Railroad commissioned in the mid-1960s for New York-Washington, D.C. service?