When the Avelia Liberty sets arrive in 2021, what will Amtrak do with the Acela’s?
So far it appears, surprising as it may seem, that they will be retired rather than being put in ‘alternative’ service (as the French have famously done with their original TGV sets).
Suspect that this is partially due (perhaps largely due) to the level of complexity and proprietary part expense involved in keeping the somewhat-overripe-tomato equipment in running order even at lower peak speeds or less-demanding duty cycles. These share considerable ‘tech’ with the HHP-8s, which have acquired quite a reputation as roundhouse queens even though they ‘go like no other’ when kept in even reasonable repair.
Artificial reefs. Chicken coops. The faster they’re gone the better.
I’m going to put in for a power car and a couple of ‘coaches’ for a vacation house, having had to miss out on the Constitution-Liner and previously the Turboliner auctions.
“Recycling” of Acela trainsets is probably a matter of economics. Currently, these Acela trainsets are under a maintenance contract with ALSTOM; I am guessing that until AMTRAK divests itself of those units, ALSTOM must maintain them. Under such terms, these older train sets would have to be recycled for parts and material, UNLESS there is another company willing to modify this soon-to-be obsolete train technology, and willing to buy them as-is.
It would be nice to see them combined into fewer, larger trainsets (passenger demand permitting of course) with two locomotives at each end.
Then you might be able to get to the other end with one locomotive still running!
Amtrak and the Bombardier/Alsthom consortium ''agreed" to terminate the maintenance contract in 2004; a cautionary tale for those in the DBM side of this business. All of the HHP-8s and all but one Acela trainset are leased and under the terms the periodic inspections of all equipment must be maintained for the duration.
I thought I read somewhere that Amtrak changed it’s mind about retiring the Acelas and was going to use them to increase frequency.
I thought this was surprising. Not sure where I read (or dreamed) it.
I think it was a ramping up of Acela frequencies in anticipation of the new equipment. That’s putting a lot of faith in a product you have yet to kick the tires whilst running the wheels off of what you do have.
They could run as Clockers from NY-DC or on The Keystone.
You are correct. From Amtrak’s fleet plan:
Acela Express equipment (20 trainsets totalling 160 active units plus one inspection car), built 1999- 2001 by Alstom & Bombardier; these trainsets will be retired following the delivery of Alstom Avelia Liberty trainsets currently on order.
I’ve got it.
Rebuild them as high-speed baggage cars! (ducks head under the desk)
No worries! You just won the internet!
Junk 'em
Agree!!![Y]
In a more serious vein, VIA kept their LRC cars (with the active tilt disabled) and scrapped the LRC locomotives, which were ALCos in reality. Diesel locomotives are maybe only worth rebuilding if they are GP9s or SD40-2s. ALCos can be maintained if you are Delaware and Hudson, but others find them too much trouble. I get that.
The Acelas are LRCs in reality? One of the advantages of using a separate locomotive over going for higher acceleration with MU cars is that the mechanical-maintenance intensive bits are in the locomotive, which can be uncoupled and replaced with a different locomotive?
Are the systems – A/C, doors, PA systems, retention toilets – in the Acelas that bad to merit scrapping all of the cars? Are they that much worse than the LRC passenger cars apart from their original locomotives?
I’m not a huge fan of the Acelas, I think Amtrak puts too much focus on the NEC anyway (just my opinion, though I have never seen the NEC). Also I just don’t like the European look of the Acelas. (Yet I love my local Cascades, what is wrong with my opinions?)
Anyway, if the leaser doesn’t have anything they want to do with them, perhaps Amtrak will turn them into cabbages or retrofit them into normal coaches. They have done similar things to the metroliners and F40s.
Like them or not, I would be sacrilege for none of them to end up in a museum. I hope one get preserved. It would be interesting if someone kept one in operating condition too. They are an important piece of Amtrak history after all.
Unavoidable: the Northeast Corridor is 17 percent of the US population and 20 percent of GDP, in 2 percent of the land area that also happens to be arrayed in almost a straight line.
First off, ALCo’s under my care were easier to maintain than than anything else, but that’s another story. The Acelas were obsolete the day they arrived. They and their stand alone electric sisters were the last large order on earth for GTO inverter drives as everyone else was transitioning to IGBT. Furthermore everything about the sets was designed on the fly as the consortium adapted what they could to meet the needs of the contract they had signed. The maintenance side of the house has been paying the price for that ever since. They were ill concieved from the get go and, despite my penchant for history, if none are preserved it wouldn’t bother me in the least.
Forgot to mention razor blades.