BEAR, Delaware — Amtrak is adding color coding at the entries to its railcars to guide passengers to the correct location to board its trains.
The first cars introducing this system — which uses green near the doors to denote coach, blue for business class, and red for first class — were to be released from the Bear, Del., maintenance facility on Monday, March 3, the company said in a press release today (March 6, 2025).
The new feature is part of the “Phase VII” design, introduced on new Siemens Charger ALC42 locomotives and and added to some P42 units, that is now being introduced on other rolling stock. Amtrak says the design “seamlessly adapts” to equipment with full-body paint, as well as stainless steel cars with graphic treatment along the window line. Equipment will be updated with the Phase VII design as they are serviced. The company offers a history of its paint schemes here.
— Updated at 5:40 p.m. CT with larger version of original image and addition of second photo.
Took a leaf out of Brightline’s and also UTA’s book. That should be done label the cars so people know where to go. This is ethical and it will allow smoother flow at stations when passengers need to board.
I understand that in Britain and other places, like rapid transit, doors will have a contrasting color to enable the visually impaired to locate the doors.
Europe has a horizontal stripe to indicate first class. Don’t have to rmemeber what color is which.