Highliner

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The Highliner is a bilevel electric multiple unit (EMU) railcar. The original series of railcars were built in 1971 by the St. Louis Car Company for commuter service on the Illinois Central Railroad, in south Chicago, Illinois, with an additional batch later produced by Bombardier. A second generation featuring a completely new design was produced by Nippon Sharyo beginning in 2005.

History

In 1926, the Illinois Central's commuter rail lines were electrified, and began operating as the "IC Electric". For almost 40 years, the IC Electric continued to operate the original fleet of heavyweight cars, until the railroad decided that a more modern railcar was needed to improve commuter operations.Template:Fact The Chicago South Suburban Mass Transit District was formed in 1967 in order to qualify for federal funding to purchase new equipment for the route. The original 130 car Highliner fleet had a cost of approximately $40 million; $26.6 million was funded by a federal grant, with the remainder coming from the Illinois Central.[1] The railcars operated on electric catenary and were more efficient than their heavyweight predecessors. A typical Highliner was able to seat 156 passengers and run faster than the heavyweight fleet.

In 1976, the newly formed Regional Transportation Authority began to fund the IC Electric commuter service. In 1983, the RTA created Metra, Chicago's commuter rail service, and in 1987, Metra purchased the IC Electric line, forming the Metra Electric Line.

File:Metra Electric District Train No. 132 Approaches Ivanhoe (4761588265).jpg
Metra Electric Highliner I at Ivanhoe, IL

An additional batch of 36 Highliners was built from 1978 to 1979 by the Bombardier company. Starting in 2005, the aged original fleet, which was increasingly prone to breakage and experiencing soaring maintenance costs, began to be phased out and replaced with the Highliner IIs. The last revenue run of the original Highliner cars was on February 12, 2016. Metra confirmed in a Facebook post that twenty-four cars are being sent to museums around the Midwestern United States, including the Illinois Railway Museum, while the other cars were sent to Mendota, Illinois to be scrapped.[2]

Highliner II

The Highliner II is a railcar built by Nippon Sharyo, a Japanese railcar manufacturer which was in charge of production of Metra's fleet of gallery cars, in collaboration with Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation of America.[3]

The Highliner IIs are similar in appearance and internal layout to the gallery cars used on Metra's diesel lines. The South Shore Line, which operates on the Metra Electric from Millennium Station to Kensington/115th Street before diverging east to Indiana, also purchased and operates the Highliner II to supplement its fleet of EMUs.[4]

Metra Highliner IIs have two center doors, where one of the center doors has a "trap" to allow for low level boarding by employees or for emergencies. However, the Higliner IIs originally designed for the South Shore Line (cars 1201-1226) have a separate single door at the end of the car instead with a trap for low level boarding, similar to the single-level South Shore Line EMUs.[5]

In 2016, Nippon Sharyo closed its plant in Rochelle where it had manufactured the Highliner IIs, due to its failure to complete its contract to build bilevel railcars for Amtrak and other corporate financial issues.[6][7]

In 2024, Metra testing 90mph operations on part of the Metra Electric District and has committed to getting the entire network to 79mph. Signaling and catenary work has begun. The previous 65mph limit was a result of 1926 Pullman stock braking algorithms which were replaced by Highliner I and no longer relevant.[8]

Fleet

Highliner I

Owner Numbers Type Heritage Year Built Builder Status Notes
Metra 1501–1630 MU Coach Illinois Central 1971–1972 St. Louis Retired Car #1509 destroyed in 1972 Chicago train collision
1631–1666 RTA 1978–1979 Bombardier

Highliner II

Owner Numbers Type Heritage Year Built Builder Status
South Shore Line[9][10] 1201–1226 MU Coach Metra 2005 Nippon Sharyo Operating
Metra 1227–1238 2012
1239–1279 2013
1280-1386 2014-2016
South Shore Line 301-314 MU Coach South Shore Line 2009 Nippon Sharyo Operating

References

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External links

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