DMU to Test in NY?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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State officials seek chance to test train

(The following article by Cathy Woodruff was posted on the Albany Times Union website on October 31.)

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York officials are vying for a chance to conduct winter testing of a prototype commuter train now being tried out in Florida.

“We are actively working to have the cold weather test done in this region,” said John Egan, director of state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s High Speed Rail Task Force.

The Florida Department of Transportation is testing a vehicle called a DMU – Diesel Multiple Unit – manufactured by the Colorado Railcar Co. under a Federal Railroad Administration demonstration project.

The FRA requires that a two-month portion of the two-year demonstration take place under winter conditions on tracks with “substantial grade and curvature,” said Steve Kulm, a spokesman for the federal agency.

Egan said the train could be a vehicle to introduce commuter service between Saratoga Springs and the Rensselaer Rail Station. It also could be used on a current Amtrak run between Albany and Montreal.

Florida DOT has begun its test between Miami International Airport and West Palm Beach with one of the motorized DMU cars, said Nazih Haddad, manager for passenger rail development at Florida DOT.

Florida is awaiting delivery of an additional power car and a middle car for the first train and a second full three-piece train set, Haddad said. While the state hopes to have two full trains operating by January, severe weather testing will have to wait until next winter, he said.

One selling point for the trains is that they can operate on regular “heavy rail” tracks used by freight and passenger trains, but they do not require full-sized locomotives. The power cars include seating.

Each power car can hold about 180 people, and a center car can old about 220, Haddad said.

The Florida testing is taking place on an existing c

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Hmmm. New York and Amtrak aren’t exactly on friendly terms so, let’s wait and see what Spitzer’s new NYDOT Commish will do.

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As nice as it would be to have this testing in NY, I’d much prefer it to test “somewhere North of Boston.”

Hey…I live slightly north of Boston…(about 14 highway miles, 12 RR miles).
The BnM had the largest single order of budcars…
I bet the DMU’s would fit in here on MBTA just fine…
It’s not like NY gets all that much colder than we do…

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Mumm… interesting. I would like to see SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) try out these new DMUs, I do think they would be ideal for the line that they were proposeing in late 2002.

SEPTA was thinking about re opening the old abandoned Reading double track main line. This line begins in Norristown, PA and ends in Harrisburg. In Norristown it runs parallel to the PA Turnpike. It used to have overhead catenary (sp) lines, but doesn’t anymore. Now days PECO (Philadelphia Electric Co) uses it as their ROW for power distribution.

SEPTA scraped the project due to the money it would cost to get the track, and catenary lines. I would also think that they would have to hire more people, and average out how many trains would be needed on this line. It’s a shame SEPTA didn’t go through with this because, it would have put them in a very competitive market with Amtrak; in terms of cheaper service to not only Trenton, but to Harrisburg as well. It also would of been an answer to the conjestion on the busiest protion of the PA turnpike from Mid County to Valley Forge.

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SEPTA wanted to build almost an entirely new line for $2 bn (undoubtedly the current estimate woudl be substantially higher). Amtrak’s prices may be higher but if Amtrak ran it, it coudl feed the NEC thus making it cheaper to operate than a traditional passenger route by SEPTA. A monthly from Paoli to Philly on the Keytone line is only $160/mo.