The design of the Horizon cars was adapted from the Comet I, a single-level commuter coach originally designed and built by Pullman-Standard in 1970–1973 for the Erie Lackawanna Railroad and New Jersey Department of Transportation. Bombardier acquired the rights to the design of the Comet car from Pullman and in 1982 built the second generation Comet II cars for New Jersey Transit. In 1988, Amtrak and Bombardier signed a contract for 104 Horizon cars, a railcar based on the design of the Comet cars, but with some small modifications make them more suitable for inter-city rail service. They are designed with a maximum speed of and rides on GSI-G70 outboard bearing trucks, also found on the Superliner II. The Horizon cars allowed Amtrak to add capacity to its fleet quickly, since it was adapted from a proven design that was already in full production. Amtrak was also able to privately finance the Horizon cars, making them the first railcars the railroad was able to purchase without securing federal funding. Bombardier delivered the cars between 1989 and spring 1990, from its Barre, Vermontassembly plant in two basic types: 86 coaches and 18 food service cars. The 72 standard coaches could seat between 76 and 82 passengers depending on the seating configuration and 14 accessible coaches could 72 and included space for a wheelchair. The entire coach fleet was later rebuilt to be accessible, with cars now seating between 68 and 72 passengers depending on the seating configuration. The 18 food service cars were configured in either a café/club and dinette configurations. Both configurations have a food service counter in the middle of the car. The 8 cars in the café/club configuration could seat up to 32 people around dining tables and 19 people in business class seating. The 10 cars in the dinette configuration could seat up to 48 people around dining tables. The first Horizon cars entered revenue service in April 1989. In 1994, Amtrak considered ordering a further 23 Horizon cars to replace the troublesome gas-turbine Turboliner trainsets used on New York'sEmpire Corridor service but budget woes prevented this.
Routes served
, the Horizon coach cars primarily are used on trains based out of Amtrak's Chicago division including the Illinois Service, Michigan Services, Hiawatha, Hoosier State and Missouri River Runner. Additionally, several Horizon cars are assigned to Amtrak's Los Angeles division for use on the Pacific Surfliner route. The California Department of Transportation has also paid to lease and refurbish 3 dinette cars for use as café cars on the San Joaquin route where they are paired with refurbished Comet cars owned by the state. These cars are assigned to Amtrak's Oakland division.
