Alstom trains for USA

[eisenach]

The news on French TV and radio is that Alstom has won a big TGV order for the New York - Washington route. The units are to be built by Alstom in the US, to the chagrin of the Belfort factory. France Inter last night said that the trains would be "business class" and first class only.

http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/...-with-its-new-generation-of-high-speed-train/

Alstom and Amtrak announced today that they have signed a contract for Alstom to design and build 28 new high-speed trains, which will run on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) between Boston and Washington D.C. Amtrak and Alstom also signed a long-term contract under which Alstom will provide Amtrak with long-term technical support and supply spare components and parts for the maintenance of the new trainsets. Together, these contracts are worth €1.8 billion ($2 billion).

The Northeast Corridor (NEC) line covers roughly 730 km (457 miles). In only ten years, the number of passengers has increased from 2.4 million passengers in FY 2002 to 3.5 million in FY 2014. As part of an effort to renew and expand their premium product, Amtrak has therefore decided to purchase new trainsets to replace the existing Acela trains, thus increasing passenger capacity, providing more frequent service, minimizing journey times, and improving operating costs and energy efficiency.

The train ordered by Amtrak is Avelia Liberty, the latest development of Alstom’s high-speed train range Avelia. The new trainset will be able to carry up to 33% more passengers than the current Acela trains. The trainset configuration includes an innovative compact power car and nine passenger cars, with the possibility of three more being added if demand grows. The train is capable of travelling at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph), but will initially operate at a maximum speed of 257 km/h (160 mph) based on NEC track speed limits. Additionally, each concentrated power car is equipped with Alstom’s pioneering Crash Energy Management (CEM) system.

Another key feature is the train’s articulated architecture...

 

[MarcVD]

Buy american act... I always Wondered why Europe does not have something similar.

 

[J-2739]

That train looks similar to that double decker concept for HS2 that Alstom released a while ago. I'm guessing this design is based on the AGV. Looks nice and modern and actually like a high speed train compared to that stainless steel bulldozer that reigned the Acela Express since what, 2000?!

Shame it's still a locomotive design compared to most high speed trains across the planet, although I think this is due to different crashworthy regulations.

 

[Harbornite]

Buy american act... I always Wondered why Europe does not have something similar.

So much for Laissez faire economics!


Here's a pic... looks alright doesn't it.

 

[me123]

Looks good.

I'm surprised that they're replacing the Acelas (only introduced in 2000), yet there appears to be no word about replacing the 1970s stock that's still used on the Northeast Regional (the lower speed and much cheaper service that runs essentially along the same corridor as the Acela). The limiting factor for the Acela is often that it has to work around lower speed passenger and freight services - I don't think it even overtakes a NER train. I'd have thought that upgrading the routes to a standard fleet of trains capable of high speed operation would help to improve things for everyone. Instead of having the differentiation between the premium Acela service and standard NER service, just standardise it (but still have faster and local services within the new standard timetable). Of course, there are some obvious issues like low platforms and non-electrified routes that are served by NER, but these can be overcome.

 

[Taunton]

"US to invest $2.5bn in high-speed rail expansion".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37199521

I can't see much expansion there, it's just replacement of the Acela stock by what seems to be pretty much equivalents.

Also, the Vice-President of the USA needs to understand, or be correctly briefed, that rolling stock is not "infrastructure".

 

[J-2739]

So much for Laissez faire economics!


Here's a pic... looks alright doesn't it.

I do wonder why the pantograph has been painted. Some other safety regulations?

 

[radamfi]

They could speed things up a bit by allowing people onto the platform before the train comes in. Bizarrely they wait until everyone has got off the train and gone up into the station concourse before letting people board.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The news on French TV and radio is that Alstom has won a big TGV order for the New York - Washington route. The units are to be built by Alstom in the US, to the chagrin of the Belfort factory. France Inter last night said that the trains would be "business class" and first class only.

I believe they are basically Pendolinos, not TGVs.
No doubt most of the bits will come from Italy and be assembled in the US.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...ortheast-corridor-high-speed-train-order.html

 

[Polarbear]

One thing about these new trains is that they will be tilt enabled-a first for the USA.

The NE corridor route has many curves & although there have been attempts at eliminating the more restrictive speed restrictions, local opposition is somewhat fierce in some places.

By using tilt, journey times can be further reduced without sgnificant expenditure on other infrastructure, which hopefully will improve Amtrak's finances.

As the present Acela trains are only 20 years old, one wonders if they could be cascaded onto regional services, which could then be operated at higher speeds on the core route. I understand there have been calls for more trains in parts of America & I'd hope the Acela trains could be put to some use elsewhere.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

One thing about these new trains is that they will be tilt enabled-a first for the USA.

Not the first...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak_Cascades

 

[eisenach]

I believe they are basically Pendolinos, not TGVs.
No doubt most of the bits will come from Italy and be assembled in the US.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...ortheast-corridor-high-speed-train-order.html

Well, the news reports on radio and TV clearly said TGV, meant in the French sense, but we all know what the media is like.
TV also said that the sets would be built in the US and that the Belfort plant was upset not to be building them because it had also just missed out on building trains on a German deal.

Thanks to the mod who found and added the press release.

 

[nlogax]

Intriguing. Looking forward to seeing these unleashed onto the NEC in a few years, but I'm curious.. when Acela made its debut back in 2000 I understand it was dubbed as 'heavy' - twice as heavy as equivalent European sets in order to confirm with federal crash regulations.

Are these regulations still as were back then, and if so will these force the solidly-built nature of their predecessors - or will Alsthom's 'Crash Energy Management' enable a lighter construction than before?

 

[Polarbear]

Not the first...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak_Cascades

D'oh! Forgot about that one...

 

[Mojo]

They could speed things up a bit by allowing people onto the platform before the train comes in. Bizarrely they wait until everyone has got off the train and gone up into the station concourse before letting people board.

Depends on the station. That was my experience at New York Penn but at Philadelphia they make you fester on the concourse for a while but let you down onto the platform a couple of minutes before the train arrives.

I do agree it is an absolutely bonkers system. They have the perfect environment to make travelling by train more attractive but do stupid things like making people sit down in a waiting area with hardly any seats before making everyone scrum through a single door where someone checks your tickets. This is made worse by the fact most trains are reservation compulsory, but you can't reserve a specific seat; and there are hardly any seats for groups on board.

 

[ac6000cw]

One thing about these new trains is that they will be tilt enabled-a first for the USA.

The NE corridor route has many curves & although there have been attempts at eliminating the more restrictive speed restrictions, local opposition is somewhat fierce in some places.

By using tilt, journey times can be further reduced without sgnificant expenditure on other infrastructure, which hopefully will improve Amtrak's finances.

As the present Acela trains are only 20 years old, one wonders if they could be cascaded onto regional services, which could then be operated at higher speeds on the core route. I understand there have been calls for more trains in parts of America & I'd hope the Acela trains could be put to some use elsewhere.

Acelas do tilt (or maybe that should be 'can', if Amtrak lets them ) - but not by as much as originally intended, because it was decided to make the passenger cars wider (to enable larger seats) during the project. The restricted clearances and track-to-track spacing on parts of the NEC don't help with using tilt either - which was part of the reason that (presumably) wider seats were a felt to be a bigger passenger benefit than higher tilt levels.

They were an Bombardier/Alsthom joint venture - basically Alsthom supplied the power cars (TGV derived) and Bombardier the tilting passenger cars, derived from the Canadian LRC and (maybe) Swedish X2000 designs.

 

[philabos]

Depends on the station. That was my experience at New York Penn but at Philadelphia they make you fester on the concourse for a while but let you down onto the platform a couple of minutes before the train arrives.

I do agree it is an absolutely bonkers system. They have the perfect environment to make travelling by train more attractive but do stupid things like making people sit down in a waiting area with hardly any seats before making everyone scrum through a single door where someone checks your tickets. This is made worse by the fact most trains are reservation compulsory, but you can't reserve a specific seat; and there are hardly any seats for groups on board.

The Pennsylvania Railroad somehow managed without all of this. The platforms at Penn Station are narrow, but PRR used four sets of stairways to access the platforms as opposed to one today.
The compulsory reservation system was introduced after 9/11 as a security measure. How that improves security is a mystery to me.

 

[jayiscupid]

I believe they are basically Pendolinos, not TGVs.
No doubt most of the bits will come from Italy and be assembled in the US.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...ortheast-corridor-high-speed-train-order.html

Theses are 2 locos sandwiching a rake of 9 articulated coaches so definitely TGV not Pendolino. SNCF trialed a tilting TGV in the early 2000's but found economically it wasn't viable then but as technology moves on they've made the figures work for Amtrak.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

One thing about these new trains is that they will be tilt enabled-a first for the USA.

The NE corridor route has many curves & although there have been attempts at eliminating the more restrictive speed restrictions, local opposition is somewhat fierce in some places.

By using tilt, journey times can be further reduced without sgnificant expenditure on other infrastructure, which hopefully will improve Amtrak's finances.

As the present Acela trains are only 20 years old, one wonders if they could be cascaded onto regional services, which could then be operated at higher speeds on the core route. I understand there have been calls for more trains in parts of America & I'd hope the Acela trains could be put to some use elsewhere.

The current Acela trains do tilt (coaches not locos) which is how they managed to speed up the route without construction of new dedicated high speed lines.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Spare a thought for the fleet of Acelas, which will be retired with only about twenty years service under their wheels. They have not been problem free, but it's a shame to see a relatively young fleet scrapped.

Wonder if anyone at VIA Rail Canada wants to make an offer on them, for future electrification of the Toronto / Montreal corridor?

 

[Disorientxpres]

The train is capable of travelling at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph), but will initially operate at a maximum speed of 257 km/h (160 mph) based on NEC track speed limits.

Alstom are building faster trains than that for Africa, but never mind.

 

[Mikey C]

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/acela-influences-alstoms-hs2-concept-train.html

Alstom's proposals for the Classic compatible HS2 trains seem to be related to these new Amtrak trains

 

[jopsuk]

Alstom are building faster trains than that for Africa, but never mind.

That's bascially just the current model of TGV Duplex that they're building for SNCF as well