SULTAN, Wash. — The star-crossed first revenue round trip for Amtrak’s new ALC42 Charger locomotives has not gotten any better on the return leg from the Pacific Northwest.
Charger locomotives Nos. 301 and 302 led the eastbound Empire Builder out of Seattle on Saturday, but reports of continued positive train control issues with No. 301 led to the locomotives being reshuffled, putting No. 302 in the lead … in time to hit a pickup truck in a grade-crossing accident in Sultan, Wash., about 23 miles east of Everett. No injuries were reported, according to KIRO-TV.
The train, which was one hour, 26 minutes late leaving Everett, arrived at its next stop, Leavenworth, Wash., some 6 hours, 32 minutes late. By Sunday night, it was 7 hours, 55 minutes late leaving Havre, Mont.
Last week’s first westbound trip for the two new Chargers was marked by an Amtrak announcement of plans to purchase 50 additional locomotives from Siemens [see “Amtrak to purchase 50 more …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 8, 2022]. The train was delayed more than an hour late leaving Chicago because of PTC issues, leading to the addition of a P42 locomotive at the front of the consists. It then fell further behind schedule when a fire in its Sightseer lounge car led to that car being removed in Milwaukee.
Wabtec’s I-ETMS PTC system has been problematic since day 1, with the freights simply shutting it down quite frequently One of the many problems is that it has to be re-programmed with every crew change, and sometimes fails to do so on the first few attempts. I experienced that on Auto Train a few weeks ago at Florence. Amtrak’s ACSES is the gold standard for performance and reliability, but of course it cannot be readily adapted to the freights.
As a fan of British Rail all I can say is: APT (Advance Passenger Train) 🙂 lol…
Not quite ready for prime time.
I seem to recall the Progress Rail F125 having some teething issues as well. Maybe if that’s been sorted out they could try to upgrade the design and sell some. Or Wabtec could start looking into a long-haul version of their MPX Express line again.
Amtrak needs to stop with the big deal “first run” PR stunts. They’re jinxed. This one is bad and of course there was the Washington state wreck.
Seems as Siemens is the only show in town when it comes to passenger rail equipment. Sadly, an industry that has dwindled from what it once was.
Accident in Sultan, one of my photo haunts on the BNSF Scenic Subdivision. That US 2 corridor is so dangerous and congested now, that it is not really fun going up there. That said, all those crossings have gates and lights.
Is it reasonable to purchase more of the problematic equipment, until or unless operational problems can be investigated and corrected?
It’s the same, but different:
“Siemens lands maintenance contract for Sprinter commuter trains”
I blame it on the 301’s paint scheme…