WASHINGTON – With demand for Amtrak service at record levels, Amtrak will acquire new mainline passenger diesel locomotives from Siemens Mobility to replace its aging National Network locomotive fleet. These initial 75 locomotives will be used …
for those who have asked why Amtrak did not consider the EMD/Peogress Rail F125 diesels, it is quite obvious. All of the state supported sevices in the Midwest and the west use the Siemens Chargers. There is the logic of common maintenance processes, crew trainin, etc. Also the Charger has proven to be a good loco with minimal teething problems. Secondly, Metrolink took a risk buying it and then being hugely embarrassed at it’s introduction by failing in front of the press. Also it has been about 2 years since the first took delivery and are only now phasing them into service. The source of failure was the Tier 4 emissions system. Hopefully they can get more orders once Metrolink has them all in service and all of the bugs worked out (Metra will be looking for a large order sometime in the future) and it may prove to be a fine loco, but this kind of start may be hard to overcome.
^^^ Wonder if the LD passenger car fleet replacements will also be 110-125 mph capable as increasingly the Midwest Corridor track will be:
Chicago to St Louis
Chicago to Detroit
Chicago to Milwaukee (only targeted to hit 90 mph on this corridor)
Or will Amtrak choose again to keep the LD trainsets restricted to 80-90 mph. I would hope Amtrak would bump up the speed limit and take advantage of the higher speed track. Though the cost might far exceed the benefit as I have no clue what type of cost that adds to a passenger car.
Would also be great if the bumped up the speed a little on that section of Southwest Chief track being maintained specifically for the passenger train. Would be nice to shorten some schedules on a few Long Distance trains. Doesn’t have to be done via track work either. Heck, drop some of the stops on the Corridor portion of Chicago to St. Louis and let the Corridor trains handle some of the smaller stops exclusively…and while we are at it, lets drop Hope, AR from the Texas Eagle schedule, what a loser of a station stop that has proven to be.
I’m curious if EMD even submitted the F125 or would have proposed something new given the perception that the F125 has.
It could be that the success or failure of the GP24B will impact this perception