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Amtrak award contract to Siemens to supply 83 'Intercity Trainsets'

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popeter45

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ac6000cw said:
I'm sure they could do it faster if they really wanted to - I can't see why it's any more complicated than it is/was in the UK. (e.g. BR used to timetable electric <-> diesel locomotive changes at B'ham New Street for 15 minutes, as far as I remember). And yes, I've experienced the 'no power' situation on Amtrak when locomotives are changed :).

It'll be interesting to see what Siemens come up with for the 'dual-power' situation - the NJT ALP-45DP dual-mode locos are very heavy (over 130 tonnes on 4 axles), and Amtrak have already said that's too heavy and expensive (at $12m each) for their purposes.

(BTW - American railroaders 'switch', not 'shunt' railway vehicles, and almost always talk about locomotives, engines or units, not 'locos' and never about carriages or coaches ;))
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It will be either a dual mode charger varient or a push-pull configuration of one end being a charger and the other a single cab ACS-64, really will depend on the power, weight and flexability requirments
 
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Taunton

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Currently, passengers on Northeast Regional, Carolinian, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian and Vermonter trains sit for approximately 30, and sometimes more, minutes in Philadelphia, Washington and New Haven without power, lights, climate control, food service or operating restrooms while diesel and electric engines are swapped
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This is caused by some extraordinarily dilatory operating procedures; the incoming train loco is detached immediately on arrival and disappears to the depot, while the replacing loco only comes on at the last minute before scheduled departure. I believe union agreements lie behind the separate crews required for moved to/from the depot, or for coupling up. As well as the diesel/electric switchover, this can be seen at Albany NY which is the operating base for New York to Toronto etc services, and where locos are commonly changed. The Swiss would make the changeover in about 4 minutes.
 
ac6000cw

ac6000cw

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williamn said:
Had to look up 'dilatory'. Great word and applies to a lot about Amtrak!
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Some years ago, I was having a coffee break opposite the Amtrak station in Columbus, Wisconsin when the westbound 'Empire Builder' arrived.

Due to the short platform and having (I think) just one member of staff who covered all the station duties, it took took two 'pull-forwards' of the train (so the passengers and checked baggage could be loaded into the correct parts of the train) and what seemed like an age before it finally departed...

Not long before it arrived, a CP freight had barreled through, horns blaring, at speed on the other track - I'm not at all surprised the CP dispatcher wanted to get the freight ahead of the passenger train on what is a partly single-track route!

The length of some of the long-distance station stops (ignoring those that are servicing stops as well) is staggering sometimes - I watched something similar to Columbus happening at Colfax, CA (on the Donner Pass line) about 10 years later.
 
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MasterYoda

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What is with the Avelia Liberty power car shape being different from the passenger car shape? It looks a bit like they took the front off an Alstom AVE unit and stuck it on a SiemensVenture passenger coach set. (Although that definitely isn't the case.) From a google of "Avelia Liberty power car shape" I couldn't find any info regarding the difference in shape between power car and passenger cars. The power car looks a lot shorter than an AGV power car and more stunted. I don't believe there is a real Avelia Horizon prototype yet to compare it to? (Other than the CGI for the new SNCF Intercities stock.) That CGI doesn't seem to have a difference in profile between the power car and the passenger cars.
TIA! :D
 
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jopsuk

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MasterYoda said:
What is with the Avelia Liberty power car shape being different from the passenger car shape? It looks a bit like they took the front off an Alstom AVE unit and stuck it on a SiemensVenture passenger coach set. (Although that definitely isn't the case.) From a google of "Avelia Liberty power car shape" I couldn't find any info regarding the difference in shape between power car and passenger cars. The power car looks a lot shorter than an AGV power car and more stunted. I don't believe there is a real Avelia Horizon prototype yet to compare it to? (Other than the CGI for the new SNCF Intercities stock.) That CGI doesn't seem to have a difference in profile between the power car and the passenger cars.
TIA! :D
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I've not found a good answer. But as a note- there's no such as an AGV power car. the AGV design has passengers in all cars and power distributed along the length.
 
Austriantrain

Austriantrain

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MasterYoda said:
What is with the Avelia Liberty power car shape being different from the passenger car shape? It looks a bit like they took the front off an Alstom AVE unit and stuck it on a SiemensVenture passenger coach set. (Although that definitely isn't the case.) From a google of "Avelia Liberty power car shape" I couldn't find any info regarding the difference in shape between power car and passenger cars. The power car looks a lot shorter than an AGV power car and more stunted. I don't believe there is a real Avelia Horizon prototype yet to compare it to? (Other than the CGI for the new SNCF Intercities stock.) That CGI doesn't seem to have a difference in profile between the power car and the passenger cars.
TIA! :D
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As far as I am aware, the „stunted“ power car will be similar for the new TGV generation. A shorter power car means more space in between the cars for passenger vehicles and advances in traction technology mean that less space is required.

As to the body shapes, the Avelia liberty are tilting trains. I suppose only the passenger vehicles will tilt, meaning they need to have a restricted car body. On the power cars, additional space is probably very useful (e.g. to make them shorter, see above).
 
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It would look OK if they had painted it a different colour as locomotives usually do have a different profile.

HST power cars are a fair bit shorter than Mk3s.
 
Jozhua

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Amtrak signs deal for 83 multi-powered trains

Amtrak signs deal for 83 multi-powered trains. Some will replace rail cars that are 50 years old.​

Amtrak has signed a mammoth contract with manufacturing company Siemens Mobility for 83 new train sets, part of a $7.3 billion plan to upgrade its rolling stock over the next decade.
Under the plan announced Wednesday, Amtrak will replace nearly 40 percent of its rail car fleet by 2031 and invest $2 billion in facilities upgrades systemwide. The oldest cars in Amtrak’s fleet would be taken off the rails after five decades of service.

The deal marks one of the railroad’s biggest investments in its 50 years of operation and comes as the company is pursuing an ambitious $75 billion expansion to bring trains to dozens of cities and towns across the nation.

Amtrak officials say they hope to have the first of Siemens’s Venture trains operating in 2024 and the entire new fleet in service in 2031, although funding has yet to be secured. Congress, so far, has authorized $200 million for the rail cars. Amtrak says it expects funding from transportation reauthorization and infrastructure bills being debated in Congress.
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The new equipment will be similar to Siemens’s Venture train sets in use on Florida’s Brightline service, a privately run intercity train in the Miami area. The train sets are certified to operate at speeds up to 125 mph.
The train, built with bidirectional capacities, will reduce turnaround times while their dual-power engines — electric and diesel — will help reduce the time it takes for trains to transition from electrified into non-electrified territory. The fleet will include diesel-only train sets for use on the West Coast, where tracks are not electrified, and some battery-diesel hybrid trains.
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Another benefit will be the elimination of a 30-minute delay for trains headed south of the Potomac River, where they change from electric power to a diesel engine.

“These new locomotives will make that engine change obsolete,” he said. “The train will pull in, people get out, people get on and then it can continue on its way out. … This provides for a seamless trip between anywhere in Virginia up through Boston.”
The new rolling stock will operate in the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak’s Palmetto route along the East Coast and along several state-supported routes.
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Opinion Time!
Overall I think this is a really solid step in the right direction. Carriages can kind of drag on forever tbh, but especially locos will be struggling after 30 years of operation.

The bi-modes definitely play into my "make the slow bits faster" motto for Amtrak. 30 minute reduction in journey times just from switching to bi-modes will be pretty fantastic!

The Siemens Ventra sets seem like nice, modern trains, I'm sure they will provide a good passenger experience. There wouldn't really have been another good, sensible solution given the constraints of buy America, FRA crash regs, etc.
 
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