Amtrak Spends $466 Million on Electric Locomotives

28 by Beth Buczynski on October 30, 2010

Transportation company's six-year contract with Siemens AG will create 250 jobs in California, Ohio and Georgia.

In an effort to modernize its fleet and provide improved performance and reliability for U.S. passengers in the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak has commissioned the German manufacturing giant, Siemens AG (NYSE: SI), to build 70 Cities Sprinter ACS-64 electric locomotives, the first of which will be operational in 2013.

According to Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, the new locomotives will operate at speeds up to 125 mph (201 kph) on the Northeast Corridor from Washington, D.C. to Boston and up to 110 mph (177 kph) on the Keystone Corridor from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pa. They will replace locomotives in service between 20 and 30 years with an average mileage of 3.5 million miles traveled.

The Federal Railroad Administration applauded the decision, which it says supports the Department of Transportation’s strategy to use transportation to build strong, modern infrastructure, while also making cities more livable, protecting the environment and reducing dependence on foreign oil.

The ACS-64 locomotives will be capable of operating on 25 kV, 12.5 kV, and 12 kV power supplies and will feature regenerative braking systems that can automatically return electricity to the power grid. Additional features include crash energy management components like anti-climbing technology and push-back couplers designed to keep the train upright, inline and on the tracks in the event of a collision. Amtrak claims the design will also allow for easier maintenance leading to faster turn around times and increased availability.

The contract with Amtrak represents Siemens' latest attempt to take advantage of the $80 million in grants for high-speed rail projects provided to several U.S. states this year. Earlier this month, Florida announced that it would make transportation history as the first state to build a high-speed rail corridor, with Siemens Velaro ICE trains soon to connect Tampa to Orlando and then Miami in a second phase.

Siemens will manufacture the locomotives primarily at the Siemens Mobility plant in Sacramento, California, creating 200 new jobs for that facility alone.

Category: Infrastructure, News, Transportation & Logistics | Tags: Amtrak, high speed rail, high speed trains, regenerative braking, Siemens, trains, Transportation

About the Author:

Beth is a freelance copy writer and environmental blogger living in Colorado. She has an M.S. in Public Communication and Technology from Colorado State University, and is passionate about inspiring people to live and laugh more sustainably. Follow her on Twitter as @ecosphericblog

Follow Beth Buczynski on Twitter: @ecosphericblog

Max

Awesome. Amazing engineering being amazingly rewarded.

Politics aside, siemens is doing amazing things and it’s awesome they are able to positively contribute to our daily lives.

Happy halloween from the city that does it best: Madison!
http://shoppinglover.posterous.com Cathandria

About Time. US seems to be a laggard in this industry. Its funny when countries like Japan, Malaysia, Korea are all talking about beating the speed of sound with their trains, we are still talking abt our old locomotives and destroying our Earth! Congrats once again!!! Its a win for all of us, US Citizens.
http://digg.com/tipsforgirls/ Joel Angelina

Congrats to both The Federal Railroad Administration & the Department of Transportation’s. We are back on track to show the world we care about being Green! Bye Bye Locomotive!

http://ihatealgore.com Bcronos

Where is the electricity going to come from? Coal fired power plants? Trains are already electric, they generate their own electricity which seems a lot more efficient than stringing 25kv lines all over the place…

ShadowTiger

So, having hundreds of individual electric generators – oh, yes, they run on diesel fuel – from oil – is more efficient than using centralized power stations? That, in addition to coal, run on nuclear or wind power? Hmmm…I’m missing something…

Klaas

As I tourist I recently used an Amtrak train for the first tim in my live. I was amazed how inefficient train travel is in the US. In Europe trains, especially on short distances as you have in the Northeast Corridor function more like a subway. In the US it is like using an airplane. You have to have a reservation for a certain train. You have to queue in the station to get to the platform. It all takes al lot of time. It is very obvious not a lot of people use the service.

I hope these new trains will help. But a lot more needs to change to make train travel easy.
Andrew

Cathandria:
High speed rail works for Korea, Japan, and Malaysia because they are all small countries by size with denser, more urbanized populations. The land area of the United States is 12 times that of South Korea, Japan and Malaysia combined. With a population spread out over a larger area of land, you need more track. More track=higher building costs. More track=more time to get from point A to point B. It’s not as simple as you think.

someone_else

Exactly, some people don’t know what they’re talking about. We also own more cars; we don’t always have to take a bus, taxi, etc.

New York, Los Angeles, and other highly populated areas’ “suburb cities” would benefit not having to live as close if you work in town. Butt other than that, what the hell is that point??

If it wasn’t for the $80 million dollar government grant, I doubt they would even consider it.

ShadowTiger

Actually the density of the Northeast Corridor is higher than in many areas of Europe. You’re pretty much constantly passing through a town or city. Take a train in France – which has a very successful system – and you could be in the countryside for more than half the 160mph trip.

I do agree that very long distance trains – say, New York to Chicago – are a different story, but that’s not where these locomotives will be used.

VingJoo

Must be nice having that kinda cash lying around.
http://ihatealgore.com Bcronos

Where is the electricity going to come from? Coal fired power plants? Trains are already electric, they generate their own electricity which seems a lot more efficient than stringing 25kv lines all over the place…

Kevin Craft

Generating at a central plant is orders of magnitude more efficient. Please educate yourself. Also, electricity can come from a multitude of sources.
someone_else

Better not fall on them tracks; 25,000 volts would hurt a little bit.

ShadowTiger

….and that’s why the overhead cables carry the electricity. At least on the Northeast Corridor.

http://www.nobrainerdeals.com Ryo

I think that is great, they need to hurry up and get the California high speed trains into action.
Peter

Still weak compared to the trains overseas that reach over 200mph. Not too impressive.
Peter Frank

Great article, its about time the world gets electric cars and electric powered trains as well. There are a few hotels as well, which use only electricity and provide electric recharge for cars , http://www.onlyrooms.com
http://tedwise.com Ted Wise

Much of the northeast corridor is already electrified. If you take a train from Philadelphia down the east coast you’ll have a 30 minute layover in DC as they switch out the electric engine for a diesel one since they don’t have power lines installed further south.

As for high-speed trains… the problem with using them in the US is that the area that uses trains the most, the northeast, is the most built up. You need long, straight sections with very gentle curves for high speed trains. That’s the exact opposite of the track in the northeast US. The cost to build out new, straighter track would be astronomical. To make matters even worse the freight system runs on the same tracks as the passenger trains, further limiting the schedules and speeds of the trains.
steve

$466 million for 250 jobs. Something doesnt add up there..
Mark

Half a trillion dollars. 250 jobs for 6 years. Let’s do the math: 250 jobs x 6 years = 1500 salaried years. 466,000,000,000 dollars / 1500 years = 310,666,666.666
For the same amount of money, we could spend the next 6 years paying those 250 workers an annual salary of $310 million dollars. Of course, then we wouldn’t have all these neat electric trains that no one wants to ride anyways, since they really don’t take you anywhere faster or cheaper than a plane can. It’s pretty difficult to make a fair assessment when so many facts are missing. It says the upgrades will mostly cater to the Northeast Corridor between Boston and DC. Amtrak has lines all over the country. I wonder which routes are profitable and which aren’t. Is this upgrade going to ever pay for itself, and If so, then how long? How about some actual journalism, Beth Buczynski, instead of this meaningless idle praise?
http://www.theviraltrend.com TheViralTrend.com

466 mill thats it lol
http://juliekinnear.com Julie K.

Everything that can bring lower consumption of oil together with low emissions of CO2 is just welcome. Besides that this cooperation can also bring new jobs… What else can I say? Maybe that we need something like that in Canada as well…
Mark

“Everything that can bring lower consumption of oil together with low emissions of CO2 is just welcome. ”

Is that right? Why don’t you throw yourself off a cliff? That’ll reduce your carbon footprint to zero for the rest of your life!

You folks praising this news seem to be incapable if using your brains. Take an economics course, examine your state’s and your country’s budget. This crap is a disgusting waste of money.

The only way we’re going to save the environment and its ability to sustain us is if we outlaw coal. We have way too much coal in the U.S. and China, and that is why you don’t see any political will to eliminate it from our energy strategy. If you really want to make a difference, write your congressperson and demand that they get realistic about our dependence on coal.

It makes absolute ZERO sense to run an electric train on a coal powered grid and then market it to people as a green solution. Think about that. Coal is the dirtiest, most toxic energy source that we use, bar none. It blows my mind that people are so easily manipulated. Use your brain. Coal is not green energy, so no electric drivetrain, no matter how modern and expensive, is going to be clean as long as its powered on a coal-fired grid.
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http://www.trytony.com Tony Zucaro

Hey, call me a conspiracy buff but I believe this is all a farce. The big corps always find a way to make the big bucks and it is usually at the expense of the environment so good stuff but i will believe it when i see it!
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A Kansas City Star

125 mph that means we could go from Kansas City to Denver in about 5 hours. About the same amount of time it takes to get into the airport, waiting area, plane, and the deplaneing and finding your luggage and getting out of the airport at the other end. Now all we need if for Amtrak to bring back the auto carriers they had back in the 1980′s; so we don’t need to wait for the rental car.
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zwharp

The only thing Amtrak has that is good IS the Northeast Corridor. Electric locomotives are a great investment not only for the environment but for the speed they offer between cities. Amtrak should just give up on long distance east-west routes that never make a profit. The Northeast is the best place in the USA for train travel. NYC to BOS in 3.5 hours, NYC to WAS in 2.75 hours, that is not bad at all.