M2/M4/M6 (railcar)

The M2, M4 and M6 were three similar series of electric multiple unit commuter cars, first branded the Cosmopolitans, built for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The Budd Company produced the M2 series, whose bodies it or Canadian Vickers built for a General Electric-led consortium that also included Avco, with final assembly at General Electric in Erie, Pennsylvania between 1972 and 1977. Tokyu Car built the M4 triplets and Morrison-Knudsen the M6. They ran mostly on the New Haven Line, now part of Metro-North, and took power from overhead catenary through roof pantographs, unlike the third rail cars of the Hudson and Harlem lines. The first M2 cars were accepted on April 16, 1973, after delays from technical problems; 144 were ordered in 1972-1974 and a 100-car option followed in 1975. New M8 cars replaced the fleet, the M4 and M6 cars left service in 2015 and the last M2 cars in December 2018. One M2 pair is preserved at the Danbury Railway Museum.