page_title: Multiple unit
section_title: North America
hierarchical_section_title: Multiple unit / By country / North America
caption_attribution_description: Diesel Multiple Unit train from the New Jersey Transit River Line at 36th Street Station in Camden, New Jersey
context_page_description: A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train control.
  Note that although multiple units consist of several carriages, single self-propelled carriages - also called railcars, rail motor coaches or railbuses - are in fact multiple-units when two or more of them are working connected through multiple-unit train control.
  The term multiple unit does not denote locomotives using multiple-unit train control.
context_section_description: Most trains in North America are locomotive-hauled and use Multiple Unit (MU) control to control multiple locomotives.  The control system of the leading locomotive connects to the other locomotives so that the engineer's control is repeated on all the additional locomotives. The locomotives are connected by multi-core cables. The Railway Technical Website, US Locomotive MU Control  This does not make these locomotives MUsfor the purposes of this article. See locomotive consist.
  However, commuters, rapid transit, and light rail operations make extensive use of MUs. Most electrically powered trains are MUs.
  The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rail Division uses EMUs almost exclusively — the exception being some of its peak express service. New Jersey Transit service on the Northeast Corridor Line is split between electric locomotives and EMUs.
  M2, M4, M6 and M8 EMUs which operate on the New Haven Line of Metro-North Railroad, are “multi-system” meaning they can draw power from either the third rail or from overhead lines. This allows operation under the wires between Pelham, NY and New Haven, CT, a section of track owned by Metro North but shared with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor service, and on third rail between Pelham and Grand Central Terminal. EMUs are used on AMT's Montreal/Deux-Montagnes line.
  DMUs are less common, partly because new light rail operations are almost entirely electric, with many commuter routes already electrified, and also because of the difficulties posed by Federal Railway Administration rules limiting their use on shared passenger/freight corridors. When the Budd RDC was developed following World War II, it was adopted for many secondary passenger routes in the United States (especially on the Boston and Maine Railroad) and Canada. These operations generally survived longer in Canada, but several were abandoned in the Via Rail cutbacks of the early 1990s. One that survives is Victoria - Courtenay train on Vancouver Island. DMU use in Canada has been resurrected in recent years, beginning with the opening of Union Pearson Express in 2015.
  While most DMUs need to comply with strict FRA crash requirements for simultaneous operation with freight railways, European-style DMUs are used with timesharing arrangements on several rail lines, including the RiverLINE in New Jersey. Only a handful of manufacturers in the United States produce or have produced FRA-compliant DMUs, including Colorado Railcar (now US Railcar) and Nippon Sharyo/Sumitomo Corporation. NJ Transit has experimented with this DMU on the Princeton Branch line. In August 2006 it was announced that Amtrak wants the State of Vermont to experiment with DMUs on the state-subsidized Vermonter line from New Haven north to St. Albans to replace the less efficient diesel locomotive trainsets currently used.
  MU streetcars were used in Toronto by the Toronto Transportation Commission (later Toronto Transit Commission) from 1949 to 1966 using 100 PCC A-7 built by St. Louis Car Company and Canadian Car and Foundry. These two car units ran along the Bloor Street route only beginning in 1950 and ceased operations after the opening of the Bloor–Danforth subway line in 1966. The A-7 units were later converted to single use.
caption: New Jersey transit Stadler GTW DMU used on the River Line
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