PATCO I

PATCO I is the name of the first fleet of rapid transit cars on the PATCO Speedline, the line between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Lindenwold in Camden County, New Jersey. The Budd Company of Philadelphia designed and built the cars in 1968, ahead of the line opening to Lindenwold in January 1969. Each car was 67 feet (20.42 m) long. Cars 101 to 125 were single units, while cars 201 to 250 were delivered as permanently coupled married pairs sharing motors and automatic train operation equipment, which made PATCO one of the first systems to run trains under automatic control in regular service. The cars used camshaft resistance controllers and Budd Pioneer III trucks, giving a lightweight but less stable ride, and the design informed the Long Island Rail Road M1 and M3 cars. A second batch, PATCO II, followed in 1980 from Vickers Canada under licence from Budd. From 2009 Alstom rebuilt the fleet with solid-state propulsion and new interiors, and the last unrefurbished train ran on 10 June 2018.