News photos: First Airo trainset visits Chicago on cross-country trek

By Bob Johnston | October 22, 2025

| Last updated on October 24, 2025

With its cab car leading, Amtrak’s first Airo trainset — en route from extended testing in Colorado to tests on the Northeast Corridor — backs toward the Chicago train wash on Oct. 22, 2025. Bob Johnston

CHICAGO — Its trials completed at the Federal Railroad Administration’s Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colo., Amtrak’s first Siemens Airo trainset is now headed east to the company’s Philadelphia coach yard, where it will be based for Northeast Corridor testing and commissioning. That trip included a stop in Chicago today (Oct. 22, 2025).

The train — a cab car, five coaches including one business class car, and Charger ALC-42e locomotive No. 70001, all wearing the unique Amtrak Cascades paint scheme — operated from LaJunta, Colo., as train No. 966 on the Southwest Chief’s route across Kansas, Missouri, and western Illinois. Led by P42s Nos. 134 and 85, an Amfleet I café, and heritage sleeper No. 10020 Pacific Bend, it arrived at Chicago at the beginning of the morning rush on Metra’s BNSF Line.

New green, white, and brown passenger train in Amtrak Chicago coach yard — Parked next to the day’s westbound California Zephyr, the Airo trainset is serviced on track 12 of the Chicago coach yard during its stop in Chicago on Oct. 22, 2025. Bob Johnston

After all equipment was serviced and given a mandatory 1,500-mile inspection, the entire ensemble exited to the Union Avenue interlocking to be turned on the wye for trip east. In the process, the Airo equipment tested clearances on one of the sharpest curves on the Amtrak system

Men in safety apparel looking at wheels and couplers of passenger equipment on tight curve — The trainset is inspected while stopped on the inner track of the wye between BNSF’s Union Avenue interlocking and Amtrak’s Lumber Street interlocking. Bob Johnston

Passenger trains side by side in yard with Chicago skyline in background — While Airo clearances are tested on the wye, a Lincoln Service train backs through the recently commissioned Chicago train wash facility at right. Bob Johnston

The exterior had not been cleaned since leaving the Siemens factory in Sacramento, Calif., at the beginning of the summer, so the trainset also made a pass through the newly commissioned train wash.

The special was set to leave Chicago tonight, following the Floridian to Pittsburgh, then operate on the markers of the Pennsylvanian to Philadelphia on Thursday. The first Airos are slated to enter service in Pacific Northwest on the Eugene, Ore.-Vancouver, B.C. Cascades corridor in early 2026.

— Updated Oct. 23 at 9:33 a.m. to correct spelling of Airo throughout; updated Oct. 24 at 10:23 a.m. to correct name of Amtrak sleeping car, mileage involved in equipment inspection.