In 1971 Amtrak, “America’s Railroad”, was born, and with it was born the responsibility of maintaining America’s passenger services. Taking up among others the Santa Fe’s luxury “Super Chief” and coach class “El Capitan” trains, Amtrak quickly set about attempting to create its own image for these classic stainless trains, adorning them with bold red, white and blue stripes and the Chevron logo (known today as Phase I colors) which would be synonymous with Amtrak service for nearly three decades.

 Amtrak continued to operate the “El Capitan” and “Super Chief” trains in combined consists for a number of years before retiring the historic “El Capitan” name, but the legacy of the train’s double decker cars would live on, both in the form of first-class “Pacific Parlour” lounge cars and in the design of the Superliners which would take form and inspiration from the Hi-level car’s revolutionary design.