CComMack wrote:You misunderstand. I meant that, if the North River Tunnels are smaller than the Suburban Station approach, and I'm fairly sure they are in at least one respect, there's no reason to spend extra money making sure SEPTA's new bilevels are North River-compatible. We have plenty of other equipment we could send to Penn Station if some unforeseeable necessity arose. Even LIRR did not bother making its C3 bilevel fleet North River-compatible, and they run right into Penn Station!
The LIRR had no need to have their cars fit the North River profile, since they were special-built for them and can only work high-level platforms. Any new SEPTA cars will have to fit Amtrak clearance envelopes at minimum from Sunnyside to Washington DC and Harrisburg, so they can be useful come Thanksgiving time.... just in case....
In any event, yes, SEPTA will be doing a full clearance study.
Yes, the Bombardier multilevel is the most likely candidate.
And new locomotives will more than likely be here long before any new coaches are even ordered. After all, the existing Bombardier fleet (except for the center-door cars) is undergoing overhaul (as time permits, no schedule for finishing, with 2 cars now completed).