Americans forgot how to build electric trains when the interurban industry died. The old electric car builders like Brill and St. Louis had electric multiple units hitting 90mph (145km/h) in the 1930s and 1940s. Budd was by no means a shabby carbuilder, but they had very limited experience with electric multiple units (the Pioneer/Silverliner cars were just passenger coaches retrofitted with cabs, motors and power collection), and the public pressure to get a high-speed train into active service forced them to release an unfinished product which (belatedly) entered service plagued with unsolved mechanical issues, and operated by a terribly inept railroad over aging infrastructure. The Metroliners were a noble effort and I believe that the Budd Company really did try, but the project was not designed to succeed.
>>1288626>>1288627Fuck off.
