WASHINGTON—Despite responses from prospective manufacturers indicating already-published concepts for replacing bilevel Superliners would be difficult to execute, Amtrak management moved ahead with requests that carbuilders subsequently rejected. The result has been a seven-month delay in issuing a final Request for Proposals that might be acceptable to remaining bidders.
That’s among the conclusions of Amtrak’s independent Inspector General in a report released Tuesday (Dec. 17).
Five Amtrak departments were involved with a procurement process that began with Requests for Information in 2022. Rather than accept what carbuilders warned would be production limitations, such as simultaneously delivering multiple car types as complete trainsets and installing elevators in the bilevels, Amtrak released images of what it had in mind in the summer of 2023 before any RFP was issued [see “Amtrak reveals new long-distance trainset concepts …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 30, 2023].
“Company executives tasked with making the final decisions about the requirements told us they weighed the carbuilders’ feedback against the Commercial department’s market research,” the report says, “and decided to push the limits of what the carbuilders said was feasible.”
The report doesn’t specifically acknowledge what News Wire has been told by other sources: that Amtrak management had promised representatives from the disabled community that elevators would be part of the design. The feature was included in the initial RFP released last December [see “Amtrak issues Request for Proposals …,” News Wire, Dec. 22, 2023]. Insistence on maintaining that commitment and the delivery of multiple car types lasted into June 2024, through several rounds of RFP rejections by the manufacturers, and resulted in the resignations of several experienced Amtrak veterans involved with previous procurements. A Federal Railroad Administration risk assessment, conducted in March 2024, deduced that the procurement had an “opaque decision-making process.”
By the time a July 2024 revision was issued, according to the Inspector General report, Amtrak reduced the number of car types “and identified various design elements it was considering modifying as ‘must haves,’ ‘nice to haves,’ and “won’t haves.’” It also included “the option to deliver cars that would be interoperable with the existing fleet as a bridge to full trainsets.” Compatibility with aging Superliners introduces more complexities, since suspension and electrical systems built decades apart are necessarily different.
Accurately evaluating an RFP from a carbuilder’s perspective not only involves engineering considerations, but also whether interest will be garnered from parts suppliers. If specifications change even slightly, it means going back to those suppliers to ascertain capabilities and costs.
The report notes, “because the company is revising its RFP in consideration of carbuilder feedback, we are not making a recommendation in this area at this time.” However, it acknowledges that “as the program progresses, the company will face a series of additional decisions about what to include or exclude in the base order, and future options could further impact the program’s schedule and costs. These decisions will be foundational to the type of long-distance service the company provides over the coming decades.”
On the other hand, the report acknowledges that risks of new designs must be weighed against the increased costs of maintaining aging equipment, especially given possible future funding shortfalls.
The irony of the 1979 demise of trains like the original Floridian, National Limited, and Lone Star is that their high maintenance costs because of heritage equipment time would have soon been reduced by the Superliners’ arrival. Instead, those costs were baked in to financials that helped doom routes that could only be resurrected at great expense once they were abandoned.
Adapting maintenance facilities for different equipment is another costly challenge Amtrak is facing with the impending arrival of the second-generation Acelas and the Aero trainsets.
The report recommends concludes by recommending that Amtrak:
— Clarifies all stakeholders roles, lines of authority, and decision-making;
— Prioritizes filling senior management and program team vacancies;
— Develops contingency plans for high-impact risks.
A appendix includes responses from three Amtrak executive vice presidents responsible for marketing and commercial activities, capital delivery, and financials. They generally agrees with the report’s recommendations but say protracted RFP submission deadlines were primarily driven by carbuilders’ requests for extensions, and to facilitate “a robust and equitable procurement approach, balancing industry input and program needs.”
While the report only deals with the initial bilevel procurement, a subsequent “Phase 4” of the program proposes acquiring single-level long distance equipment. It is possible Amtrak could piggyback on an order by VIA Rail Canada, if or when that order takes place, depending on the reception to VIA’s solicitation of manufacturers [see “VIA Rail Canada seeks bids for new long-distance trainsets,” News Wire, Dec. 9, 2024].
Sounds like Amtrak should go with a single level nationwide consist instead of maintaining two disparate fleets… As long as the ADA is enforced this will be the only way that their rolling stock will be 100% accessible.
Sounds like Bilevels could use a ramp design instead of current twisting stairs or contemplated elevator (which likely will be a maintenance headache).