America's Failed High Speed Train - Budd Metroliner

[kamnet]

Inspired by the Shinkansen, in the late 1960s the US government showed interest in developing its own high-speed passenger rail service, later known as the Metroliner. Locomotive and coach builder Budd, who had contributed some technical knowledge to the Shinkansen, was selected to head up the project, with General Electric and Westinghouse providing electrical systems and power, and also funded by the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad. Unfortunately, an overall lack of experience in developing modern train systems and equipment by all, on top of severe underfunding by the federal government due to money diverted to the Vietnam War as well as the aerospace industry, meant that the fruition of an American counterpart to the Japanese Shinkansen or French TGV would never come to pass. Still, the Metroliner coaches themselves proved to be a fairly solid design and would be upcycled into the Amtrak Amfleet I and Amfleet II coaches, hauled by the GE E60s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMb0F1CSw_k