In 1971 Amtrak, Americas Railroad, was born, and with it was born the responsibility of maintaining Americas passenger services. Taking up among others the Santa Fes 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 trains 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 cars revolutionary design.