NEW YORK — Delays in launching Amtrak’s next-generation Acela fleet have cost the passenger company $140 million so far, and the figure continues to grow, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday in a paywalled article.
The figure includes the growing maintenance costs of keeping the current Acela trainsets — the first of which entered service in December 2000 — operational beyond their intended service life, and with parts no longer being manufactured. The Journal reports Amtrak has spent $48 million on parts, brake overhauls, and other work by private contractors to keep the current fleet in operation, and that four of the 20 trainsets built by Bombardier and Alstom between 1998 and 2001 never returned to service after being parked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they are being cannibalized for parts.
The Amtrak Office of Inspector General released a highly critical report on the manufacturing process for the new Acelas in October [see “Amtrak Inspector General: Production problems …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 3, 2023], but all dollar figures were redacted in that report. The Journal reports it was able to review an unredacted version of the report, which is the source of its $140 million figure. That figure also includes losses from having fewer Acelas in operation and having less capacity in those that are running, compared to the larger next-generation trains.
The new Acelas were originally supposed to enter service in 2021 but now are projected to begin service sometime in 2024, eight years after they were ordered. The Inspector General’s report indicated ongoing issues include an inability to produce a computer model of the trains performance that matches predicted performance; such a model is part of the testing process required by the Federal Railroad Administration. The modeling issue was first reported by the Washington Post earlier this year [see “New Acelas face further delays,” Trains News Wire, May 30, 2-23].
The Inspector General report said trainsets have also been built with defects that must still be corrected, and no schedule has been established for addressing those defects.
Does anyone know what the Alstom computer model is supposed to do and why it doesn’t pass muster? Is it supposed to predict the wheel/track interaction at every point along the NEC at speed/at max load/etc? I’m not sure what the purpose/value of the computer model is. Any explanation would be appreciated.
“Alstom says in that in modifications made after testing on the complete NEC route in a variety of conditions, “mass was added to the extremity ends of each car, and additional anti-roll bars were added to the café car to lower the center of gravity over specific wheels and to distribute load on wheels (to optimize) the trainset’s behavior on the curves of the NEC. **These changes require updates to the computational model to validate the behavior of the trainsets** in parallel to testing activities required by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to enable a smooth introduction into revenue service.”
Let’s see……
Boeing overbudget and behind schedule on the T-7, the Starliner, 777X, Air Force One
NASA overbudget and behind schedule on Artemis/SLS
Lockheed-Martin overbudget and behind schedule on the F-35
Alstom overbudget and behind schedule on the Acela II
CalHSR overbudget and behind schedule
We found the problem this morning, it was looking back in the mirror!
Where in today’s accounting or business classes do they teach setting budgets and rational scheduling?
I read Mexico might be looking for some passenger equipment in the near future. Maybe we’ll see Amtrak get some good pesos for this equipment. 😉
Engineers and lawyers butting heads delayed SEPTA’s Airport Line for years until somebody told them to knock it off. These Acela trains continue to roll off the production line at Hornell. If they can’t pass the high speed test, run them slower until they can.
At stake here is also Alstom’s widespread reputation and prestige around the world.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
What reputation and prestige? Amtrak is a laughing stock around the world as the little train that CAN’T.
$140 million and counting.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
A vast corporate governance failure. Culpability extends past the executive team to the Board of Directors.
Where, in the name of God, is the accountability???
Good question.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Maybe we should just get one of the European or Asian companies to supply the new hi speed trainsets and quite possibly operate it under contract or lease agreement. Especially the Japanese or the French who are the experts and masters of hi-speed rail would certainly have a system up and operating in no time. However they too would have thei problems trying to navigate through the swamp and cesspool called Washington D C and the our bumbling and stumbling geniuses that we have running this nattion. Amtrak always has these issues with their equipment and whatever they touch becomes a lemon or a pumpkin on rails. Is this what the money that is allocated for Amtrak and the NEC being wasted on ? 140 million being wasted on keeping the current generation of Acelas operating as well as money being spent on new equipment that might never run or sit on storage tracks while engineers and technicians poke and prod and probe to solve the problems of these new trainsets with no sucess. When you look at the old trainsets and models that were developed years ago and the sucess that the old builders and designers had in creating new designs and equipment and what we have today, this country sure has sunk to low levels with design and engineering. We can get people to the moon, even make routine flights to the space station and even dive down to the lowest levels of the ocean to explore and examine the Titantic but we can’t build and operate a simple thing like a hi speed train to run efficiently . And another point to consider, What happened to all our great American builders of rail equipment from years ago. Budd, American Car and Foundry, St Louis Car Company, and a few others I know that these companies either went out of business or were bought out and taken over by foreign builders. What is the thevproblem with American manufacturing and engineering? Have we lost our skills and know how on how to build rail equipment that work and perform the right way and last ? Why do we have to always now buy from foreign companies and concerns. Or is it that politics and corporate greed has taken over our manufaturing and building. It is time for America and these next generations to wake up. We are now beholden to foreign interests and concerns and pretty soon if not already will own us and all that we have or think that we own. We are a train wreck just careening down the tracks heading to oblivion.
Joseph C. Markfelder
These new sets are from Alstom, a French company.
This time, Alstom gave an important bad surprise to an important customer. Of course, $140 million is a huge amount of money.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Such a negative development would never have occurred in Alstom and SNCF relations!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
I agree with ur statement. Why can all these other countries make and run high speed rail. Hell look at the present passenger service, can’t even keep it running on time. Look at the mess out in California, waiting for that nice High speed rail to be completed. Then look at Brightline in Florida, a private company got it done. Now they are looking at doing this for Las Vegas as well. So many of the big names who produced our passenger cars, and engines are gone. I am so disappointed how it just keep’s getting worse. Look at air travel today a nightmare. What if we had high speed rail from coast to coast and north and south. I think more people would love to travel that way again.
Added expenses from re-engineering and retrofitting are results of choosing the lowest bidder instead of a manufacturer with the best designed products. It is more economical in the long run to select the manufacturer with the best designed trains which would be running now. Amtrak is also spending more money to keep the old Acela Express fleet operational instead.
Might I ask what the purpose is of the required computer model? Why wouldn’t you just test the performance against the contract specs?
None of us have read the specs for the computer mdel. One would hope t includes feedback loops to real-world performance, and vice-versa.
Maybe Amtrak would be better off just purchasing off the shelf European designs and seeking FRA waivers. Seems like all their recent contracts for equipment have been problematic.
I doubt the FRA waivers would be forthcoming. Inappropriate for high-speed, high-frequency passenger trains, to say nothing of occasional freights, plus M/W apparatus on the r/w during times when passenger trains are operating.
But I thought UK and EU countries ran high speed trains.
Let’s remember that Amtrak’s next-generation Acela fleet is similar to SNCF’s highly anticipated TGV M.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Except for the speed of the TGV. And remember, the Europeans don’t have the crash requirements that the US has. That is because they spend much more in making sure the roadbed is perfect (and separate from freight) and maintenance is conducted much more often. If the TGV had to run on US rails it would rarely get above 80 miles per hour, if that.
Will Amtrak ever learn that it has to write some iron clad parts provisions into its procurements? It has to recognize that there is too much planned obsolescence that can effect equipment that can last 40 -50 years with some TLC.
This just effect RRs. Airlines have the same problem especially parts that have to be certified.