Comet I These cars were the first of the Comet series, built by
Pullman Standard in 1970–73 for the
New Jersey Department of Transportation and used the
Erie-Lackawanna Railroad's diesel-hauled commuter services. These railcars were named after the Jersey Central train
Blue Comet. These were considered state of the art at the time, due to their all-aluminum body shell construction as well as their use of head-end power (HEP). Their automated entrance doors, designed for use with low platforms only, earned them the nickname "Sliders". 155 cars were built, with 35 cab cars, 110 trailer coaches and 10
bar cars. In 1987, the fleet was rebuilt by
Bombardier at
Barre, Vermont, with all 35 cab cars and a number of trailer cars receiving high doors, for ADA access and future compatibility with high platforms. They were given NJ Transit logos adjacent to the entrance doors at this time, as NJ Transit had taken over EL commuter service. The bar cars were converted to standard coaches. The low door cars were retired from service in 2005. 25 of the cars were sold to
Utah Transit Authority (UTA) for the
FrontRunner service, and 20 were leased to
Metrolink in 2008 to help with an acute car shortage there. In March 2011, Metrolink returned the cars to FrontRunner upon the expiration of the lease. Metrolink also leased 15 cars directly from New Jersey Transit in 2009. These cars have not been used since 2011. The Comet I cars have become popular with western commuter lines as the low door setup is compatible with the low-platform stations in use. Eight Comet Is were sold to
SEPTA, but are now out of service and put into storage, except for one cab car now used in work service. NJ Transit retired the last of its Comet Is in March 2009. The Comets that were not sold to SEPTA, Metrolink, UTA or to private railroads and museum fleets were scrapped by 2010. FrontRunner retired their Comet I cars on April 18, 2022, citing increased maintenance costs and low ridership; they were put up for auction in October 2022, lasting until November 2022. In May 2023, the railcars previously taken out of service by UTA were painted with HMRX railcar markings and numbering onto the sides of them while inside of UTA's FrontRunner train yard. They were transported to
Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad in September 2023. Preserved examples are located at several museums, including the
Whippany Railway Museum in
Whippany, New Jersey and the
Southern California Railway Museum in
Perris, California. Three of the Whippany Railway Museum's Comet I lcoaches, including Cab Control Car no. 5119, were later sold to
Cape May Seashore Lines in 2025. File:PS COMET CAB.png|Cab car layout File:PS COMET TRAILER.png|Trailer car layout File:PS COMET BAR.png|Bar car layout
Comet II |alt=MNCR Comet II 6129 at Riverdale The Comet II cars were built by
Bombardier Transportation, which acquired the rights to the railcar's design from Pullman. The first order of cars was built for NJ Transit between 1982 and 1983 and consisted of 142 trailer coaches and 19 cab cars. A second order, the Comet IIB, was purchased in 1988. These cars feature long end-doors with
trapdoors over the stairs for use at both low-platform and high-platform stations. The cars are similar to the
MBTA's BTC-1 and CTC-1 cars, built in 1978 by Pullman Standard. These cars were intended for use on lines formerly operated by the
Central Railroad of New Jersey, operator of the
Blue Comet train to Atlantic City. This led to the NJ Transit series of single-level cars becoming known as Comets. These cars have been overhauled by
AAI Corporation and
Alstom between 1999 and 2003 to make them aesthetically and technologically similar to the Comet IV series and are now compatible with later equipment. They are now mostly used on Newark Division or Midtown Direct trains, as well as the Atlantic City Line.
Shoreliner I and II coaches, purchased by
Metro-North and the
Connecticut Department of Transportation for use on non-electrified territories east of the
Hudson River, are variations without long doors. Amtrak's
Horizon coaches are also a variation without long, automatic doors. Metro-North also purchased Comet II coaches for use on the
Port Jervis Line, where they ran until replaced by the Comet V. They have since been transferred to the East-of-Hudson pool, where they remain in service.
SEPTA Regional Rail and
AMT (later Exo) also purchased cars based on this class. The 24 ex-Exo cars were later sold to SEPTA in March 2026.
Comet III |alt=Comet III cab car 5003 on NJT train at Princeton Junction The Comet III cars, ordered by NJ Transit in 1990, feature center doors and long end-doors, permitting end doors to open and close with traps open. The Metro-North
Shoreliner III fleet is a variation without long doors. The Comet III fleet was removed from revenue service between 2009-2010 and remained in storage until 2022, when it was decided to dispose of the cars as scrap. 46 of the 49 remaining cars were scrapped in June/July 2022 in Neptune Yard near the
Bradley Beach station, with one car remaining in NJ Transit's Meadowlands Maintenance Complex. Metro-North also owns two Comet III cab cars, which were originally numbered 5179 and 5180. These cars were sold to NJT in 1998 and renumbered to 5009 and 5010, but were later sold back to Metro-North in 2008. In 2022, car 5010 was converted to a rail adhesion car; it was retrofitted with high-powered lasers to incinerate leaf residue.
Comet IV train at
Winslow Junction.|alt= The Comet IV cars, delivered in 1996 and purchased for NJ Transit's new
Midtown Direct service, are similar to the Comet III cars, except they have no door by the engineer's cab, have thicker black stripes along the window, exterior and interior LCD panels providing destination and station information, a new interior color scheme, and power operated saloon doors. The Metro-North
Shoreliner IV fleet is a variation without long doors. With the completion of the Comet V order, Comet IV cab cars are no longer allowed to trail or lead a train; their cab controllers were deactivated in 2013. Since then, they are now used exclusively as blind coaches, in which they are inserted into a train consist and act as regular trailer cars, and instead these trains are led by a Comet V cab. Trains using older Comet coaches usually have a mix of IIs and IVs, as they are largely interchangeable. The major difference between the two models is the presence of a center door on the IVs.
Comet V |alt= New Jersey Transit Comet V cab car #6044 leading Hoboken bound train #66, nearing Suffern. These cars were ordered in 1999 by NJ Transit and Metro-North Railroad and delivered between 2002 and 2004. Unlike previous series which were built by Bombardier, the Comet Vs were built by
Alstom. The major external differences are a stainless-steel exterior, larger windows, and visible, roof-mounted air conditioning units. Comet V trailers are almost exclusively used for Hoboken-bound diesel trains. Comet V cab cars are also used to lead trains of Comet II/IV trailers, as they lack functional cabs. =="Comaro" coaches==