Comet (wagon)
The Comet car is a series of passenger carriages for the US public transport company New Jersey Transit , which are also used on other North American suburban and commuter railways. They were originally developed for the Erie Lackawanna Railroad at the end of the 1960s by Pullman-Standard (the company founded by George Mortimer Pullman in 1867 ) as modern commuter cars .
The series
Comet I.
The first Comet were built in 1970 for the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad (EL). The order was placed by the New Jersey State Department of Transportation . The cars were eventually made for numerous other railroad administrations as well as Amtrak . The Comet series was later produced by Bombardier (Comet II, III, IV, VI) and Alstom (Comet V) because Pullman had given up car manufacturing. The EL Comet wagons were the first of this series and were used before their diesel trains. These modern cars had automatic entry doors , which were designed so that they could easily be boarded from low platforms ( short door ).
Based on their construction were from 1968 to the Penn Central delivered -Railroad multiple units of the type Arrow! to which these aluminum cars were structurally related. In contrast to these, the first Comet cars had neither central doors nor corrugated outer walls. The windows weren't as rounded as on the railcars.
In 1987 this Comet I fleet was modernized by Bombardier. New high doors for elevated platforms were installed and disabled access was created. The vehicles that had retained lower doors were retired by 2005. Five cars were sold to the MBTA in Boston . More cars are to be used in Utah in the future.
Comet IA
These cars were built by the Budd Company and were also derived from the New Jersey Transit's new Arrow III railcars. But they lacked the central door and they had smooth outer walls. They were intended for use on the Port-Jervis Line, where they operated until 2005.
Comet IB
This car series was converted directly from 30 Arrow I railcars from Bombardier in Canada 1987-1989 for use on the Raritan Valley line together with Comet II and IIB cars. They were later used throughout the New Jersey Transit network. In 2007, these car types ran exclusively on the lines departing from Hoboken station .
Comet II series
Most vehicles of this series were first built by Pullman in 1978/79 for the MBTA as series BTC-1 and CTC-1 (with driver's cab ). From 1982 NJ Transit and the Metro-North Railroad (referred to there as Shoreliner I ) also bought these vehicles to replace old and completely worn out cars. From the beginning, these cars had doors for elevated platforms of the stations in the Northeast Corridor and Metro North. This resulted in faster passenger changes, since boarding American cars from rail level or low platforms is very difficult. The Comet II cars are also used on the New Haven Line New York – New Haven, which is operated by Metro North on behalf of the State of Connecticut . While the Metro North wagons have blue ribbon windows, the former New Haven color scheme with red ribbon windows was adopted here.
The Agence metropolitaine du transport in Montreal also procured this type of car. Other cars were later acquired by MBTA and NJT between 1987 and 1990, including the only Comet II first class car (Clubcar). Also SEPTA , the mass transit in the Greater Philadelphia get, introduced in 1986, these vehicles into service.
The Montreal cars are only used on low platforms and have therefore received the short door of the first EL series.
Comet II (Rebuilt)
Between 1999 and 2002, NJ began modernizing the Comet II and Comet IIB cars at Alstom. They received the interior fittings and other details of the Comet IV cars, from which these only differ in the lack of a central door. Like the Comet IV wagons, these are equipped with pneumatic brakes including disc brakes, modern electronics including directional signs. The control cars of the Comet I series were converted into normal intermediate cars. This was done as an evaluation of an accident in Secaucus station, whereupon all NJ Transit control cars received reinforced ram strips, among other things.
Comet III series
NJ transit wagons
The Comet III series was built from 1990. These were the first cars in the Comet series that also had a double-leaf central door like the Arrow railcars. The installation goes back to the wishes of passengers. This innovation meant that passenger transfers were faster on elevated platforms. However, this door cannot be used on low platforms, as there are no steps.
The Comet III cars have neither automated station announcements nor destination information in the passenger areas. The Comet III control cars have been built so that they can be converted into normal intermediate cars in the event of new, stricter regulations from the supervisory authority.
Metro North Car (Shoreliner II)
The Metro North carriages (known as "Shoreliner II") are modeled on the NJ Transit Comet III carriages and were classified as 6300. They are not used on the West of Hudson lines, the lines operated by Metro North on behalf of NJ Transit in New Jersey (Hudson Bergen Line, Pascack Valley Line), but their endpoints are in New York State to have. In contrast to the usual Metro-North practice, the cars with even car numbers do not have toilets, only those with odd car numbers. This series also broke with the Metro North tradition that only control cars have odd car numbers. Even with the Shoreliners, alighting through the middle door is only possible at high station platforms.
Comet IV
In 1996, two NJ transit commuter trains crashed into Secaucus, New Jersey. The front side of the driver's cab of one of the trains was literally sheared off, both engine drivers and one passenger were killed. After an investigation, it was found that the front of the Comet II car did not provide sufficient impact protection. The Comet IV series was based on the Comet III car, with the biggest change that the right door of the driver's cab can no longer kill the driver in the event of a collision by simply leaving it out. Metro-North (Shoreliner II) and the ConnDOT (Connecticut Department of Transportation) also purchased several copies of this type of car, both as an intermediate car and as a control car. Only SEPTA bought pure intermediate cars of this type.
Comet V
These cars were procured from Alstom by NJ Transit and Metro-North from 2000 with the intention of replacing older Comet I, IA and IB series cars.
These cars have a strikingly different external appearance than the older cars produced by Pullman-Standard and Bombardier. The main features that stand out are their larger windows, their glossy, brushed exterior surfaces made of stainless steel and the lack of the black ribbon of windows typical of NJ Transit.
The hip curve-like outer wall resembles those of the new M 7 series S-Bahn trains from Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad, as well as those of the 2000 light rail vehicles in Hanover .
The launch of the Comet V wagons was pretty rocky. Door problems (opening and closing were too slow) and a handful of other problems, such as the braking system, required Alstom to cost expensive warranty repairs to fix these problems.
To date, the Comet V cars have only replaced the IA types and Comet II "Shoreliners" of Metro North on their lines in New Jersey. The Metro-North cars continue to travel on the lines east of the Hudson River. All other Comet-I cars with high doors and IB cars will remain in the portfolio of both companies.
Comet VI
These cars are the latest addition to the Comet fleet. These double-deck cars , designed by Bombardier, were specially designed to fit into the narrow tunnel of the North River through NJ Transit. Otherwise, the design of these cars is based on similar vehicles from the MBTA from 1991 and Long Island Railroad from 1990. The order comprises 15 control cars (139 seats), 37 intermediate cars equipped with a toilet (141 seats) and 46 cars without.
These cars have doors for both high and low platforms. In addition, the usual 2 + 3 seat arrangement in multiple units and single-deck cars has been replaced by a 2 + 2 arrangement. The consequence was that the middle seat of the three-seater bench was mostly vacant anyway. To this end, emphasis was placed on wide aisles and thus more accessible toilets for the disabled for wheelchair users.
Amtrak Horizon Series
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The Horizon series is the fleet of cars acquired by the US long-distance railway company Amtrak in 1989 and based on the concept of the Comet types. However, they received a different interior design for use in long-distance and intercity trains . 86 normal seating cars and 18 dinette-bistro cars were built. Today, they are mainly used on trains in the Midwest around Chicago. At the beginning of the 1990s, however, they also operated the newly created Amtrak Capitol Corridor Service, San José – Oakland – Sacramento, in California. One of the other differences between Horizon wagons and Comet wagons is the outer frames of the bogies on Amtrak vehicles. There are further differences because of the automatic end doors of the Comet cars and the manually operated Horizon units, as well as the automatic intercar door on the Amtrak cars.