After years of delays and controversy over safety and design, Amtrak is one step closer to bringing new high-speed trains to the busy Northeast Corridor.
Amtrak officials announced late Friday that a new vehicle that had previously failed a series of computer modeling tests passed on its 14th try and received permission from the Federal Railroad Administration to begin testing on tracks from Washington, D.C. did. Boston.
The faster, more spacious trains (a set of locomotives and passenger cars) come with a price tag of about $1.6 billion and will replace rolling stock in the Acela fleet, which was supposed to be retired at the end of its life cycle in 2016. It turns out.
The sleek new Abelia Liberty trains, in red, white and blue, will travel at top speeds of about 160 mph, 16 mph faster than the current Acela trains, due to limitations imposed by the Northeast Corridor’s aging tracks. , it is expected that the slope will allow you to travel faster and more smoothly around curves. The number of passengers will increase by 25% to his 386 passengers.
Amtrak said in a statement that on-track testing is “the next step in the safety certification process toward the start of revenue service.”
Cliff Cole, a spokesman for France’s Alstom, which manufactures the new vehicles, hailed the move to on-track testing as a step forward for passengers, saying, “Passengers will soon be able to ride brand-new cars on America’s busiest rail corridor. They will discover travel experiences.”
But the project, which is three years behind schedule, has suffered major setbacks, and Amtrak has not said when the trains will be able to carry passengers. Last fall, passenger rail service targeted October 2024 for new trains to begin service, according to the inspector general’s report. Alstom, which manufactures trains in Hornell, New York, has delivered only 10 of the 28 trains it was contracted to complete in 2021. For now, the 10 cars remain at a depot in Pennsylvania, visible to Amtrak passengers traveling to and from Philadelphia. 30th Street Station.
During that time, Amtrak spent more than $48 million on maintenance to keep older Acela trains in service.
In 2016, then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and then-Amtrak Chairman Anthony R. Coscia stood outside the Wilmington, Delaware, station to announce a $2.45 billion federal loan to Amtrak. At that time, there were great expectations. Bringing high-speed rail travel to the Northeast. That year, Amtrak selected Alstom, which built the original Acela cars in 2000, to build the new trains.
Under the terms of the contract, Alstom was required to create a computer model to predict the performance of the trains before starting construction. This is an important provision because the Federal Railroad Administration, which enforces railroad safety regulations, must approve models that: Demonstrate that trains are safe before being tested on the Northeast Corridor tracks.
The corridor’s curves, bridges and tunnels were a particular challenge for Alstom. The region’s tracks are estimated to need more than $100 billion in repairs and upgrades for new trains to reach maximum speeds throughout the corridor.
By 2019, the company faced problems. Amtrak officials and Alstom representatives said the train manufacturer told Amtrak that computer modeling showed the new trains would not be able to run safely on the Northeast Corridor tracks. Nevertheless, Alstom said the company could resolve the issue and wanted to move forward.
Amtrak gave Alstom the green light to build the trains despite problems with computer modeling because it felt it had no other choice, according to Amtrak officials. Most recently, Amtrak officials admitted that they had not included safeguards in their contract with Alstom to protect themselves if the company struggled to develop a working train.
“I think there’s going to be a discussion after the fact about whether that should be a contractual mechanism,” said Laura Mason, Amtrak’s executive vice president of capital distribution.
By January 2020, Amtrak’s inspector general’s report warned of continued delays and train safety issues, and in September 2023, another inspector general’s report also warned. In an unredacted version of that more recent report obtained by The New York Times, inspectors general said the trains still failed modeling tests and that trains built so far were found to be defective. Did. The report said the defects could be fixed, but some trains required “structural and design changes” and others required “sealants, drainage or corrosion fixes.” .
Jim Matthews, chief executive of the Railroad Passengers Association, an advocacy group, said that as both Amtrak and Alstom continue to test trains on their tracks, the tilting technology and how effective it is in shaping train curves will be discussed. He said that he will pay close attention to how he can demonstrate his abilities. At high speed.
“Now that most of the issues have been identified, we expect a fairly smooth testing process going forward,” Matthews said. “Let’s see how they run as they go through the Northeast Corridor.”