#4085
Highliner
🇺🇸 United States ·built by St. Louis Car Company· from 1971· class of American bi-level electric multiple units
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2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Metra Electric train: Peter Van den Bossche· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 2. 20160212 17 Last Run of Metra Electric Highliners (28668032122): David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
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.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 55 years ago, in 1971.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Weighs about as much as 11 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 25.9 m long: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
- Still in service after 55 years.
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1971
- in service from
- 1971
- status
- in service
- number built
- 367
- kind
- multiple unit
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- St. Louis Car Company, ALSTOM Transportation Germany, Nippon Sharyo
- operators
- Illinois Central Railroad, Metra, South Shore Line
- top speed
- 145 km/h
- power
- 149 kW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- overhead lines
- wheel arrangement
- Bo’Bo’+Bo’Bo’
- formation
- Married pairs
- length
- 25.9 m
- weight
- 63.5 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q16975703, Wikipedia: Highliner (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.