Testing difficulties delay launch of faster Acela trains, Amtrak says

[mahatmakanejeeves]

TRANSPORTATION

Testing difficulties delay launch of faster Acela trains, Amtrak says

The new trains are now slated to enter service in 2024.

By Luz Lazo
May 27, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Amtrak’s plan to roll out higher-speed trains in the Northeast Corridor this year has been derailed amid complications in completing testing of the new train sets along the route’s decrepit infrastructure.

Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.
New Acela trains scheduled to debut this fall need more analysis to ensure they can safely operate on the curvy and aging tracks between Washington and Boston, railroad officials said, saying the new trains are now slated to enter service in 2024, at least three years behind schedule.

The 28 Avelia Liberty high-speed trains, which will replace Amtrak’s existing Acela fleet, are part of a $2.5 billion investment supporting upgrades to passenger service through the nation’s busiest rail stations. The trains will come with improved safety, reliability, rider comfort and capacity, railroad officials said.

But their delivery has been snarled by multiple delays, including some stemming from unforeseen complexities in testing and computer simulation processes required by the Federal Railroad Administration. Amtrak and train manufacturer Alstom have cited some compatibility hiccups between the high-tech train, modeled after those in operation across Europe, and infrastructure that dates back 190 years in some areas.

{snip}



Alstom workers install underframe fairings to an Amtrak Acela train at the Alstom production facility in Hornell, N.Y. (Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post)

{snip}

Gift Article
https://wapo.st/4387jtO

By Luz Lazo
Luz Lazo is a transportation reporter at The Washington Post covering passenger and freight transportation, buses, taxis and ride-sharing services. She also writes about traffic, road infrastructure and air travel in the Washington region and beyond. She joined The Post in 2011. Twitter https://twitter.com/luzcita

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Amtrak's New Acela Fleet Is Languishing in a Rail Yard

Hat tip, a mailing list I'm on

GETTING AROUND

MAY 31, 2023

Amtrak’s New Acela Fleet Is Languishing in a Rail Yard

By Alissa Walker, a Curbed senior writer



Photo: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Amtrak’s new, high-speed Acela fleet is one of the country’s largest-ever public-transportation investments, ringing up at $2 billion. But over the last three years, as each of the 28 new Acela train sets rolled off the Hornell, New York, assembly line, they have been languishing in a rail yard, all dressed up with nowhere on the Northeast Corridor to go. Now the major Acela upgrade, once planned for 2021, might not be on track until sometime in 2024.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Acela cars are being held up by requirements that mandate the trains are run in a range of real-world conditions before boarding passengers. The problem is, unlike their siblings in other countries that have their own dedicated rights-of-way, the new Acela trains — like all the service Amtrak runs — have to share tracks with existing freight and passenger trains, severely limiting what track is available for testing. And among the greatest concerns for the new rolling stock is how it will navigate those antiquated 100-year-old rails, including how trains designed for France’s stick-straight TGV routes negotiate our curvier stretches. (The answer: slowly.) Right now, Amtrak is still using computer modeling to replicate various scenarios that the new cars might encounter during their trips up and down the Eastern Seaboard; so far, the supposedly superfast trains haven’t seen speeds faster than 90 mph.

Veteran commuters will remember that similar issues derailed delivery of the first Acela fleet — cracks in brakes took 20 Bombardier train sets temporarily out of service — but Amtrak’s current woes are more infrastructural. And, in a way, more existential. As the federal government grapples with demands to speed up passenger rail service across the country, the conflicts with freight-dominated tracks — including the growing threats of deferred maintenance and dangerous derailments — will only become more pronounced. Other countries are building trains that exceed 200 mph as well as the dedicated infrastructure to keep them blurring between cities on schedule; by the time these brand-new Acela trains get rolling, they’ll only barely qualify as high-speed rail. The promise of Andy “Train Daddy” Byford, who recently worked magic for the MTA, taking over Amtrak’s high-speed network could finally spark the U.S. rail revolution we deserve. But with every year, we’re lagging further behind.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Report: Another Delay for Amtrak's Acela II

May 31, 2023 | High Performance
Report: Another Delay for Amtrak’s Acela II
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

{snip}