AMTRAK has confirmed that the first five of its new fleet of 28 NextGen Acela 260km/h trains will commence commercial operation on the Washington, DC, - New York City - Boston Northeast Corridor (NEC) on August 28, around four years later than initially planned.

The remaining 23 tilting high-speed trains will steadily enter service up to 2027, replacing the first-generation Acela trains, which entered service in 2000 and will continue to operate alongside the new fleet as it is introduced.

The new trains offer a 27% increase in capacity compared with existing Acela fleet, with each nine-car single-deck train seating 378 passengers.

“The new NextGen Acela offers an elevated experience, with features and amenities that today’s savvy travellers expect, plus everything they need to be productive along the way: free high-speed 5G-enabled Wi-Fi, as well as individual power outlets and reading lights,” Amtrak says.

The fleet is being assembled at Alstom’s factory in Hornell, New York, using components from more than 180 suppliers across 29 states. The $US 2.3bn project has created an estimated 15,000 jobs in the United States. The contract was originally awarded in 2016 under a process that began in 2014.

Troubled project

The Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a damning report on the new train project in September 2023, citing defects and problems with the design of the train that were delaying approval by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The delays resulted in “significant cost increases, operational impacts and delayed revenue,” OIG said in the report.

Among the problems encountered were loss of contact between the pantograph and contact wire at higher speeds on the older, variable-tension catenary system installed between Washington and New Haven, Connecticut. Wheel-rail interface problems, which reportedly did not surface during high-speed testing on the Railroad Test Track (RTT) at Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado, also occurred on the NEC.

As reported by IRJ’s sister publication Railway Age, this problem appeared to echo similar issues encountered during testing and early revenue service of the non-articulated, first-generation Acela trains. They are much heavier than the new articulated fleet, having a power car axleload of 25 tonnes compared with 17.5 tonnes on the NextGen Acela. In addition to premature wheelset wear, the first-generation trains experienced cracked yaw dampers, upper carbody pantograph shrouding that peeled off at speed, and inboard brake discs that disintegrated.

“Modelling of the wheel-to-track interface is particularly complex due to age, condition, and specific characteristics of Amtrak infrastructure on the Northeast Corridor, and especially the existing tracks,” Alstom told The Washington Post in May 2023.

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