During its beginnings, Amtrak inherited its passenger cars from other railroads. Old, steam heated and in dire need of upgrades, Amtrak set out to replace these cars in 1973 with the purchase of the first Amfleet cars from Budd. This initial batch of 492 cars were the Amfleet I – with a door and vestibule on either end (unlike their single-doored successor), these cars fell into a few different varieties but essentially broke down into coach and dinette variants. Despite the introduction of their newer cousins, Amfleet I’s are still in use by Amtrak, primarily for shorter distance routes.

Phase 7 is the newest livery for Amtrak equipment, each car features a dual blue look with different accent colors to indicate service levels. Red is first class, light blue is business class, and green is coach class.