Railroad Trains for the Soul: RTA Commuter Trains
As Amtrak acquired a majority of intercity passenger rail services in the early 1970's, many U.S. state and local governments revitalized commuter trains with sufficient funding. Initially, some newly formed agencies had short-lived paint schemes that were transitional from private services to public subsidies. For example, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), located in northeast Illinois, created a two-tone blue scheme that was commonly seen on the newly delivered EMD F40PH diesels. These colors were also seen on several pre-owned postwar E units built by EMD. The RTA commuter rail agency would eventually be reorganized as Metra, which is short for "Metropolitan Rail", so the paint scheme was changed to red and royal blue. In 2017, one of its F40 locomotives was decorated in a retrospective RTA heritage scheme, but it has the Metra logo instead of the RTA lettering. Stay tuned for more unique commuter rail paint schemes!
Photo credit: Joseph Petric
