Passenger Trains > EMU population

Anyone have info or know how many commuter railroads use EMUs (railcar, not the bird!), if any, in the U.S. and, if so, which one? Thanks.

Metra Electric in Chicago, for one. Former Illinois Central lines electrified in 1926. Now on the third generation of equipment (Highliner II). South Shore Line to South Bend, IN uses the same trackage out of Chicago, and will have much the same equipment eventually.

Metro-North, LIRR, NJ Transit, SEPTA, MARC, South Shore, Metra Electric

Dave

The only one I know of is the Sprinter, it runs
between Oceanside and Escondido, California on a
former Santa Fe branch line. It is run by North County
Transit District in San Diego County and ties into their
Coaster commuter service between San Diego and Oceanside.

They have 10 cars I believe!

Mike

2720 Wrote:
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> The only one I know of is the Sprinter, it runs
> between Oceanside and Escondido, California on a
> former Santa Fe branch line. It is run by North
> County
> Transit District in San Diego County and ties into
> their
> Coaster commuter service between San Diego and
> Oceanside.
>
> They have 10 cars I believe!
>
> Mike

That's a D (diesel) MU, not an E (electric) MU.

Dave

Besides METRA in Chicago, there are of course the obvious "big three" in the New York Metro area - LIRR, Metro North and NJ Transit. SEPTA (Philadelphia) and AMT (Montreal, QC) also use EMUs. After that I don't think there are any more heavy rail EMUs in use in North America.

DavidP Wrote:
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> Metro-North, LIRR, NJ Transit, SEPTA, MARC, South
> Shore, Metra Electric
>
> Dave

I'm pretty sure MARC doesn't operate any EMUs - only motor-powered (AEM7/HHP8) trainsets.

In 2016, Denver can be added to the list.

Metro-North
LIRR
NJ Transit
SEPTA
Metra Electric
NICTD (South Shore)
and, as mentioned, AMT in Montreal

All are powered by overhead catenary EXCEPT Long Island and Metro-North Harlem and Hudson Lines, plus New Haven Line trains west of about Columbus Avenue in Mount Vernon. Metra Electric and South Shore are all-EMU and SEPTA is close to it.

MARC is all loco-hauled/pushed. Sprinter is Diesel MU.

A big thank you to all for the quick responses. Off hand, are most of these lines using products from Hyundai Rotem?

gyralite Wrote:
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> A big thank you to all for the quick responses.
> Off hand, are most of these lines using products
> from Hyundai Rotem?

SEPTA (now in operation) and Denver (2016)

ConnDOT is in the process of re-equipping the New Haven Line with M8 cars built by Kawasaki, while the recently delivered M7 cars for the Harlem and Hudson Lines were built by Bombardier.

There are over 3000 (3010 to exact) EMU cars operating in North America. They make up close to 50% of the entire North American Passenger car fleet. If you count subway cars into the mix you can almost triple that.

Since this thread is "old" - not on the first page here at TO) not sure how many will see this but, QUESTION for those of you familiar with EMU (or DMU) operations. Is the "crew" just the operator or is there also a conductor-type person on the train?

prr60 Wrote:
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> In 2016, Denver can be added to the list.


Also, add Caltrain in 2019 assuming everything proceeds as planned. They are looking at lightweight european options from Stadler, Siemens, Alstom, etc...

EMU trains are passenger trains just like any other with an engineer, conductor, assistant conductor, etc. The cars are considered locomotives by the FRA as well.

gyralite Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Since this thread is "old" - not on the first page
> here at TO) not sure how many will see this but,
> QUESTION for those of you familiar with EMU (or
> DMU) operations. Is the "crew" just the operator
> or is there also a conductor-type person on the
> train?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 15:43 by MW4man.

Thank you MW4man for that information. I wasn't sure if they operated (crew-wise) like a "heavy rail" commuter train or if they were crewed more like a "light rail" operation with only an operator (I still wanna call them 'motormen"!)