After years of delay, Amtrak a step closer to faster trains in Northeast
WASHINGTON — After years of delays and safety and design disputes, Amtrak is one step closer to bringing new high-speed trains to the busy Northeast Corridor.
Amtrak officials said late Friday that the new trains, which had failed an extended series of computer modeling tests, had passed on the 14th try and had been cleared by the Federal Railroad Administration to begin testing on the tracks that run from Washington, D.C., to Boston.
The faster, more spacious trains — sets of locomotives plus passenger cars — come with a price tag of about $1.6 billion and are to replace those in the Acela fleet, which should have been decommissioned at the end of their life cycle in 2016.
The new Avelia Liberty trains are to travel at a maximum speed of about 160 mph because of a limit imposed by the Northeast Corridor’s aging tracks, 10 mph faster than the current Acela trains, and are expected to tilt for a faster and smoother ride around curves. They accommodate up to 386 passengers, an increase of 25%.
The testing on the tracks will be “the next step in the safety certification process that leads toward launching revenue service,” Amtrak said in a statement.
Cliff Cole, a spokesperson for Alstom, the French manufacturer of the new trains, hailed the move to ontrack testing as progress for passengers “who will soon discover a brandnew travel experience on the busiest rail corridor in America.”
But the project, three years behind schedule, has been plagued by major setbacks, and Amtrak has not said when the trains will be ready for passengers.
Jim Mathews, CEO of the Rail Passenger Association, an advocacy group, said that as both Amtrak and Alstom move forward with testing the trains on the tracks, they will be paying close attention to tilting technology and how well it helps the trains make curves at high speeds.
“I would expect a pretty smooth testing regime from here on out because most of the problems have been identified,” Mathews said. “We will see how they run now that they will be on the Northeast Corridor.”