page_title: Multi-system (rail)
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Multi-system (rail) / Examples / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: A New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad EP-1 electric locomotive, circa 1907. The AC pantographs are raised.
context_page_description: A multi-system locomotive, also known as a multi-system electric locomotive, multi-system electric multiple unit, or multi-system train, is an electric locomotive which can operate using more than one railway electrification system. Multi-system trains provide continuous journeys over routes which are electrified using more than one system.
context_section_description: In the United States private companies undertook electrification independently, resulting in divergent systems. Thus the New Haven EP-1 had to support three separate electrification systems: 660 V DC via third rail, 660 V via pantograph, and 11 kV 25 Hz AC via pantograph; in order to make a 27-mile (43 km) journey from the New York Central Railroad's Grand Central Terminal in New York City to its own station in Stamford, Connecticut.
  Multi-system operation continues to present day. New Jersey Transit uses multi-system ALP-46 and ALP-45DP locomotives (and also future Multilevel III Electric Multiple-Units) for its Midtown Direct service into New York and Amtrak uses multi-system AEM-7, ACS-64 and Acela locomotives on the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston. In both cases, through trains run on both newer, 25 kV 60 Hz built or refurbished by their respective agencies since the 1980s and older, 12 kV 25 Hz inherited from the now-defunct Pennsylvania Railroad. The latter dates to the 1930s, when the Pennsylvania upgraded its electrified network from 650 V DC third rail.
caption: New Haven EP-1 No. 020, circa 1907. Note the small DC pantograph between the two larger AC pantographs
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