The BiLevel Coach is a bilevel passenger railcar designed for commuter rail service in North America and currently manufactured by Alstom. It was originally developed for GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area in the mid-1970s and has since been used by commuter rail agencies in Canada and the United States. They have been previously manufactured by Hawker Siddeley, Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC), SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier. Production began at the former Canadian Car and Foundry (Can Car) plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where the cars have continued to be built.
History
The BiLevel Coach was developed in the mid-1970s at the request of the Government of Ontario as a higher-capacity alternative for GO Transit's commuter trains. By then, GO trains had grown to ten single-level coaches during peak periods, and increasing the height of the trains was considered preferable to making them longer. Hawker Siddeley Canada designed the cars with assistance from Dofasco and the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC). The first cars entered service with GO Transit in 1976.
The design was introduced to the United States by Tri-Rail in the Miami metropolitan area in 1989. By the end of 2020, 1,477 BiLevel coaches had been built for 14 North American operators.
Although the cars have undergone structural and equipment changes over time, the basic design has remained largely unchanged. The coaches have an octagonal cross-sectional profile, sometimes referred to as a "lozenge" because of its profile.
Design
The BiLevel has an aluminum body mounted on a steel floor that provides much of the car's structural strength and supports the trucks, draft gear, and other mechanical equipment. The aluminum body provides additional structural strength and encloses the passenger compartment. This construction allows the cars to have a relatively low weight compared with their size.
BiLevel coaches are approximately high and wide and weigh about . Depending on the configuration, the coaches have between 136 and 162 seats and can accommodate up to 276 standing passengers.
The car is arranged as four interconnected passenger spaces: upper and lower levels over the length of the car, with intermediate levels over the trucks. The passenger areas are largely open, with electrical and mechanical equipment is located beneath the floor, around the stairwells and above the intermediate levels. The lower-level floor is about above the rail and is typically used with low-platforms. The intermediate levels, where passengers pass between cars, are about above the rail, the typical height of single-level, high-floor cars.
One major variant is the cab car, which allows trains to operate in a push–pull configuration without turning the locomotive at terminal stations.
The coaches have undergone several design changes since their introduction in the 1970s. The original coaches had five large windows on each lower level between two large doorways, riveted aluminum side panels, and a washroom at one end of the intermediate level. Cab cars did not have a washroom because the space was occupied by the cab. Conductors had sliding windows with door controls on the upper level. The original cab design was small and had a single engineer's window. The original design remained in production until 1992.
In 1992, a redesigned version was introduced by Metrolink with changes intended to improve accessibility. The washroom was moved from the intermediate level to the lower level beneath the stairs. This required one of the two doorways closest to the washroom to be moved toward the center of the car, eliminating one lower-level window and giving the car a slightly asymmetric layout. Some operators have swapped out the washroom for a small café service area. Door controls for conductors were also moved to the lower level. In the mid-1990s a larger full-width cab with two windows was introduced.
Beginning in 1997, the coaches were built with welded aluminum exterior panels, replacing the riveted construction used on earlier cars as welding technology improved. The new design had smooth side panels and a transverse structural rib above the intermediate-level windows, while retaining the basic arrangement of the earlier coaches.
In 2014, the design was substantially revised to incorporate crash-energy management (CEM) features. The redesigned coaches use additional steel, push-back couplers, and crumple zones at the ends of the intermediate level to absorb energy in a collision. The changes reduced the size of the intermediate level and eliminated one of its windows. The cab was also redesigned, with the engineer seated higher and farther from the front of the car, with a crumple zone between the engineer and the front of the cab. The new cab design eliminated the front door of the cab car, preventing passage between cars when the cab car is positioned within a train consist.
Comparison with other Bombardier bilevel coaches Bombardier also produced the MultiLevel and Double-deck Coach. The MultiLevel conforms to a smaller loading gauge than the BiLevel and was designed for routes with tighter clearances, including the Northeast Corridor and the Mont Royal Tunnel in Montreal. Its doors are positioned on the middle level to serve high-level platforms. The Double-deck Coach was designed for the German market and conforms to the German loading gauge, with a profile that narrows toward the upper level.
Series
SeriesOperatorsBuilder I GO Transit Hawker Siddeley Canada/Can Car II GO Transit, Metrolink III GO Transit, Metrolink UTDC/Can Car IV GO Transit, Tri-Rail V VI GO Transit, West Coast Express, Sounder, Altamont Corridor Express, Trinity Railway Express, Tri-Rail, Metrolink, Coaster, Caltrain Bombardier Transportation/Alstom VII GO Transit, FrontRunner, Northstar, SunRail, Trinity Railway Express, New Mexico Rail Runner Express, Sounder, Exo, Metrolink VIII GO Transit IX GO Transit, Sounder, SunRail, Altamont Corridor Express X GO Transit, CoasterBombardier Transportation/Alstom
Operators Current operators OperatorLocationQuantityImage Altamont Corridor Express Tri-Valley, CaliforniaBay Area, California 30 Caltrain Bay Area, California 41 Coaster San Diego, California 28 Exo Montreal, Quebec 22 FrontRunner Salt Lake City, Utah 22 GO Transit Toronto, Ontario 979 Metrolink Los Angeles, California 184Equipment Rail Runner Express Albuquerque, New Mexico 22 Sounder Seattle, Washington 58Sounder SunRail Orlando, Florida 25 Tri-Rail Miami, Florida 26 Trinity Railway Express Dallas, Texas 17Train Facts Trinity Railway Express Dallas, Texas 5 West Coast Express Vancouver, British Columbia 44
Future operators OperatorLocationQuantityNotes Amtrak California Northern California 16 13 coaches and 3 cab cars to be leased from Caltrain. Hiawatha (Amtrak) Chicago, IllinoisMilwaukee, Wisconsin 3Will be leased from Northstar after the line shuts down
Former operators OperatorLocationQuantityImageNotes Northstar Line Minneapolis, Minnesota 18 Line shut down in 2026, some cars to be leased to other operators.
References
External links
The Bi-Level Coaches (from transittoronto.ca) Bombardier BiLevel in Canada and the USA – Bombardier