Since the early 1990’s, Amtrak has operated several different intercity passenger train routes under the “Amtrak California” name. One of these, the San Joaquin, travels through California’s Central Valley in between Bakersfield and Oakland as well as from Bakersfield to Sacramento. When the San Joaquin was officially brought under the Amtrak California name in 1993, train equipment consisted of EMD F59PHI diesel electric locomotives and bilevel “California” style passenger cars, built by MK Rail. Over the years, train frequencies increased, necessitating additional locomotives and cars.

California purchased 14 single level “Comet 1B” type cars from New Jersey Transit and then paid Amtrak to completely overhaul them in 2008. These cars started off life as “Arrow 1” self propelled electrical multiple unit cars in the late 1960s and were later converted by New Jersey Transit to standard passenger cars after a series of reliability issues. This conversion earned the cars the nickname “Commarros”. Amtrak completed the initial car overhauls in the spring of 2013 and the first of two full train sets of equipment entered service in October of that year. California also leased three former F40PH cab control cars and three horizon fleet cafes from Amtrak to be used with the comet 1B sets. They were used for a decade in regular service until they were replaced with new Siemens-Mobility Venture passenger cars in December of 2023.

In this video, we will take a look at several of the Comet 1B passenger cars in service on the San Joaquin trains. Locations include several spots in the east San Francisco Bay Area as well as in the San Joaquin Valley.


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