By Railfan & Railroad Staff

Amtrak has released the first passenger car to wear the new Phase VII livery. The Viewliner I sleeping car was painted at its Beech Grove, Ind., shop and has since been moved to Chicago where it will soon enter service. 

Previously, the Phase VII livery has only appeared on locomotives, including the ALC-42 Chargers, P42s and GP38-3s. 

Photo Courtesy of Amtrak.

The first car to wear the new livery is the Iroquois River. The car features the dark blue and red of the Phase VII livery separated by white arcs. It also debuts Amtrak’s new class of service accent colors to aid customers in wayfinding along platforms; red for first class, light blue for business class, and green for coach class. Amtrak officials hope to eventually have all of its national service equipment in the new scheme (not including specialty service schemes, such as Acela). 

Amtrak plans to have 44 of these cars in service by the end of next year, with the new livery applied in the normal course of the reactivation of each of the cars. Officials estimate that at least 11 will be in the new scheme in the coming year or so. Eventually, Horizon, Amfleet and Superliner passenger cars will also get the new livery.