page_title: Bilevel rail car
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Bilevel rail car / Operators / United States
caption_attribution_description: CalTrain's double decker passenger car.
context_page_description: The bilevel car or double-decker train is a type of railcar that has two levels of passenger accommodation, as opposed to one, increasing passenger capacity. In some countries such vehicles are commonly referred to as dostos, derived from the German Doppelstockwagen.
  The use of double-decker carriages, where feasible, can resolve capacity problems on a railway, avoiding other options which have an associated infrastructure cost such as longer trains, more trains per hour or adding extra tracks besides the existing line.
  Bilevel trains are claimed to be more energy efficient, and may have a lower operating cost per passenger. A bilevel car may carry up to about twice as many as a normal car, if structure and loading gauges permit, without requiring double the weight to pull or material to build. However, a bilevel train may take longer to exchange passengers at each station, since more people will enter and exit from each car. The increased dwell time makes them most popular on long-distance routes which make fewer stops.
  Bilevel cars may not be usable in countries or on older railway systems with low loading gauges.
context_section_description: Bilevel passenger rail cars used in the United States are manufactured by Bombardier, Kawasaki, Colorado Railcar (today US Railcar), and several others, with the former two having produced the majority of the high platform "split level" commuter rail cars in use in the northeastern states.
  Colorado Railcar produced bilevel DMUs and Ultra Dome passenger cars. Colorado Railcar cars measure 19 ft 9 ¹⁄₂ in (6,033 mm) in height and have steps that enter to a lower deck that is 51 in (1,295 mm) above the rail.
  Other designs, including rolling stock made by Colorado Railcar, Budd, Pullman-Standard, Bombardier and others have an entrance on the lower deck rather than an intermediate level. Amtrak Superliners are double-decker cars of this variety, with the entrance a step or so up from the lowest station platform level, or at the level of slightly higher platforms, and allow passage from car to car on the upper level.
caption: Nippon Sharyo bi-level car used on Caltrain service
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