page_title: Hi-Level
section_title: Amtrak
hierarchical_section_title: Hi-Level / History / Amtrak
caption_attribution_description: Amtrak's southbound Heartland Flyer boards at Norman, OK.
context_page_description: The Hi-Level was a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used in the United States. Car types included coaches, dining cars, and lounge cars. Most passenger spaces were on the upper level, which featured a row of windows on both sides. Boarding was on the lower level; passengers climbed up a center stairwell to reach the upper level. Vestibules on the upper level permitted passengers to walk between cars; some coaches had an additional stairwell at one end to allow access to single-level equipment. Santa Fe and Budd considered but never created a sleeping car.
  The Budd Company designed the car in the 1950s for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for use on the El Capitan, a coach-only streamliner which ran daily between Los Angeles and Chicago. The design was inspired by two recent developments in railroading: the dome car, employed in intercity routes in the western United States, and bilevel commuter cars operating in the Chicago area. Budd built 73 Hi-Level cars between 1952 and 1964.
  The first two prototype coaches entered service on the El Capitan in 1954 and were immediately successful.
context_section_description: Throughout the 1960s passenger ridership declined on American railroads while losses mounted. In 1971 the United States federal government created Amtrak, a subsidized for-profit corporation, to take over intercity services and reverse the decline. The Santa Fe, after some hesitation, participated. Amtrak took over the Santa Fe's remaining trains on May 1, 1971. It acquired the entire Hi-Level fleet and continued to operate them. The primary assignment continued to be the combined Super Chief/El Capitan, known as the Southwest Limited from 1974–1984 and the Southwest Chief thereafter. The Chicago–Houston Texas Chief, another ex-Santa Fe train, also carried Hi-Level coaches.
  Amtrak was impressed with the Hi-Levels and used them as the basis for the design of the bilevel Superliner family of railcars. The first of 284 Superliner I cars began arriving from Pullman-Standard in 1978. As the Superliners went into service, Hi-Levels could be found on more of Amtrak's trains throughout the Western United States. Hi-Level coaches appeared on the San Francisco–Chicago San Francisco Zephyr, Chicago–San Antonio, Texas–Los Angeles Eagle, and the Chicago–Seattle, Washington/Portland, Oregon Empire Builder. Dining cars displaced from the Southwest Limited filled in on the Ogden, Utah–Los Angeles Desert Wind. Tunnel clearances around New York City and elsewhere prevented their use on the Northeast Corridor.
  The Superliner I order did not include any "step down" coaches, so Hi-Level coaches continued to fulfill this function on Superliner-equipped trains. In the 1980s, Amtrak rebuilt many of these coaches as dormitory-coaches, with half of the car given over to crew space. Amtrak retired all six single-level baggage-dormitory cars by 1981 in lieu of converting them to HEP. By 1990 the Amtrak fleet stood at 69 cars: 36 dormitory-coaches, 21 coaches, 6 diner-lounges rebuilt from dining cars, and the 6 lounge cars, which Amtrak marketed as "See-Level Lounges". The arrival of 195 Superliner II cars from Bombardier Transportation in 1993–1995 permitted the retirement of most of the remaining Hi-Level cars. The Chicago–Toronto International used a mix of Superliners and Hi-Levels from 1995–2000. Hi-Levels remained in service on the Oklahoma City–Dallas Heartland Flyer into the 2000s. The majority of the Hi-Level fleet was retired at the beginning of 2003. The private equity fund Corridor Capital owns most of the fleet, and has proposed employing them for various passenger projects within the United States, including a plan to revive the Coast Daylight.
  The last major Hi-Level assignment on Amtrak was the Los Angeles–Seattle Coast Starlight. In the late 1990s Amtrak refurbished five of the six lounges for use as sleeping car passenger-only lounges, branded as the "Pacific Parlour Car". Amtrak offered separate food and beverage service in the upper level and installed a movie theater in the lower level. The railway writer and historian Karl Zimmermann called them "the greatest treat for sleeping car passengers on Amtrak". By the late 2010s Amtrak was manufacturing new parts for the Hi-Levels at Beech Grove, or in some cases retrofitting the Hi-Levels to use Superliner parts. Amtrak retired the cars after their last run on February 4, 2018, citing safety concerns and rising maintenance costs. They were the last Hi-Levels in regular service, and among the few remaining Heritage Fleet cars. The Steam Railroading Institute, a heritage railroad based in Owosso, Michigan, acquired several for use in excursion service.
caption: Hi-Level coaches mixed with a Superliner coach (center) on the Heartland Flyer in 2005
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