In the US, the startup AmeriStarRail presented a draft design of AmeriStarliner double-decker long-distance trains for the state carrier Amtrak. At the same time, the idea of articulated cars on Jacobs bogies is not new: it has already been worked out in Russia, but left at the concept stage.
The developers propose to purchase up to 1632 such cars in 2031–2040. However, Amtrak itself has so far given priority to other rolling stock. The AmeriStarliner concept involves articulated cars based on Jacobs bogies. This allows to increase capacity and reduce the weight of the train. The cars will have a reduced height — 4570 mm from the rail level, which will allow them to run throughout the United States, including the tunnels of the Northeast Corridor, which cannot accommodate the current Superliner double-deckers.
A similar design was proposed in Russia several years earlier. The Association "Consortium of Centers for Economic Programs and Strategies" developed the concept of a double-decker articulated car, also consisting of two sections with a central Jacobs bogie. The reason why the concept was not put into series has not been publicly announced — presumably, the reason is the inflexibility of such trains. In the design with Jacobs bogies, the cars are rigidly connected in continuous sections: it is impossible to detach one car without disassembling half of the train, which is critical for Russia, where the demand for transportation varies greatly depending on the season. The second likely reason is the high cost of development: creating a fundamentally new bogie for double-decker cars would require serious investment in R&D and testing, which is economically justified only for very long trains that do not change their composition.
Russian double-decker trains of classic layout (each car on two bogies) have been running since 2013: now double-decker trains manufactured by the Tver Carriage Works (part of Transmashholding) are used in several directions, including Moscow — St. Petersburg and Moscow — Kazan. Their capacity is 50–60% higher than conventional cars, and operating costs are lower.
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