PHILADELPHIA — Amtrak broke ground Friday to mark construction of its new heavy maintenance facility at Philadelphia’s Penn Coach Yard, a $462 million project slated for completion in 2027.
Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner, Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose, and Samantha Silverberg, White House deputy assistant to the President for infrastructure, were among those on hand for the ceremony. The facility will handle life-cycle maintenance and heavy repairs, along with daily inspections, service, and cleaning. Amtrak says it will speed up the maintenance process and reduce train turnaround times thanks to more modern maintenance practices.
“This new maintenance facility is critical to upgrading the customer experience with new state-of-the-art trains, combined with our other major infrastructure projects,” Gardner said, according to an Amtrak press release. “This project and several others like it will help drive continued ridership growth and future service expansion thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and continued support from the Biden-Harris Administration, Congress, and many other partners around the country.”
Amtrak awarded a design-build contract for the facility earlier this year to Herzog Contracting Corp. [see “Amtrak awards contract …,” Trains News Wire, March 1, 2024]. The new facility will cover nearly 350,000 square feet, with a two-bay maintenance and inspection facility including inspection pits, a drop table, and fueling pads, as well as two tracks for service and cleaning.
The groundbreaking came on the same week that Amtrak awarded the construction contract for another maintenance project, expanding and upgrading its King Street Yard in Seattle [see “Amtrak awards contract for Seattle maintenance facility,” News Wire, Oct. 3, 2024].
Having recently spent time at 30th St…I was again impressed with the Pennsy’s layout.
The “Power of the Purse”
Don’t see any reason to terminate any corridor train at Philly. In my experience riding between PHL to NYP or WAS, there was nearly the same numbers of passengers getting on the train as were getting off.
Mine as well but the official numbers say otherwise. Running a corridor-within-a-corridor could add riders with little alteration to what’s already there. No one wanted Clocker service…except the passengers.
The other question: What happens to Bear?
Maybe this facility will service some AX-2s that terminate at PHL. As well we might see some LD trains have cut off cars that terminate at PHL?
I would like to see their plan for cycling cars into the facility. Only a few of the Keystone trains terminate in Philadelphia so repair moves would be deadhead moves. Would’t have been a better idea if this facility was in Boston, New York, or Washington DC. Where the trains actually terminate?
Remember the maintenance facility in Providence for the turbo trains? (Courtesy of Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne deBorda Pell). For trains that terminated in Boston and New York (or else Washington and West Virginia).
This is an interesting tell. The VAST amount of Amtrak NEC passengers are between New Haven and Philly. The new Airo sets have a cab on each end. This could be something smart.
The idle Avelia Liberty trainsets, still waiting to be approved for use, are obscured by the caption block in the upper right of the photo.
Great, a new maintenance facility. Now when are all the new train sets sitting there in Philly going to be put in service?