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.