Bombardier BiLevel Coach

The Bombardier BiLevel Coach is a bilevel passenger railcar designed for commuter rail service in North America and now made by Alstom. It was developed in the mid-1970s at the request of the Government of Ontario as a higher-capacity alternative for GO Transit, whose peak trains had grown to ten single-level coaches, and Hawker Siddeley Canada designed it with help from Dofasco and the Urban Transportation Development Corporation. The first cars entered service with GO Transit in 1976, and Tri-Rail brought the design to the United States in 1989. Builders over time were Hawker Siddeley, UTDC, SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier, at the former Canadian Car and Foundry plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario. By the end of 2020, 1,477 coaches had been built for 14 North American operators. An aluminium body on a steel floor gives an octagonal profile and a weight of about 61,000 kg, with 136 to 162 seats, and cab cars allow push-pull running. The design was revised for crash energy management in 2014.