Gallery Type Bi-Level EMUs for Metra, U.S.A.

Manufacturer	Nippon Sharyo, Ltd.
Built for	Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation (Metra), U.S.A.
Product type	Gallery Type Bi-Level stainless steel electric passenger railcars (Highliner)
Launch of commercial operations	Fully operational by March 2006

Nippon Sharyo, Ltd. collaborated with Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation of America in delivering 26 Highliner electric railcars to Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation (Metra) of the United States.

The Highliner railcars are the only rolling stock to operate on the electrified track, which is equipped with 1,500V DC overhead contact lines. The track links downtown Chicago to the city’s suburbs in the south. Other Highliners, also supplied by Nippon Sharyo but operated by Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD), offer through services on the line.

The Gallery Type Bi-Level EMU have a passenger compartment structure which is almost the same as that of the gallery type bi-level non-electric cars supplied to the same company, but they of course have an electric drive mechanism and a power collector system. The stainless steel carbodies have an exterior appearance and interior similar to Metra’s non-electric passenger cars, except for the low ceiling sections where the pantographs are mounted. In many cases, the specifications for service equipment and furnishings are common to both types of cars. The basic formation is two cars per fixed trainset, although up to four of these can be coupled together to make an eight-car trainset. The railcars run on the one line section that has been electrified (1,500V DC) — this line section, one of 12 operated by Metra, extends to the south of the city.