Why 2024 Is a BIG Year for Amtrak

I edited this video on an 11 hour Amtrak ride

As a European I hope the best for your public transport furture!

Amtrak also just obtained trackage rights of my local rail line (C&O Piedmont Sub) and will be using it for commuter service in the near future!

Next year will indeed be a roller coaster ride for Amtrak

Such a drag that they make the smart decision to go with an experienced manufacturer from a nation with a lot of high speed rail experience and then get screwed by Alstom anyway.

As of this fall, an Inpector General report confirmed Amtrak has NOT received any Avelia Liberties. Alstom has stored them on Amtrak property and is having probems with certification with FRA. The major one is that Alstom cannot provide computer modeling of the active banking system for each portion of track on the Corridor something which FRA said was a hard requirement before certification. BTW, Avelia Liberty is a hybrid: locomotive from the Avelia Horizon (aka TGV--M) but the coaches are Pendolinos. (and the lower speed model of Pendolino since high speed ones don't have banking). This is why the shape of loco does not match the shape of the coaches. It is somewhat ironic that in 2018, the FRA relented and realized its own rules prevented modern trains and changed it policy to allow importing modern trains, but the "made in America" rules prevent the importation of tested, working trains that can be put in service and instead the desiging of custom trains with USA components requiring full testing/certification regiment since totrally different from original model. The Viaggios were already heavy steel trains built for cheap in Europe to run on slow lines (only up to 230kmh) and Siemens then had to build a new version of it to meet "made in USA" and FRA rules (since designed in USA prior to 2018, still had the rules that requires everything to be slow and heavy). Siemens has newer Viaggios made of aluminium now but these would cost too much to convert to meet FRA stadards, so Siemens USA continue st offer the old heavy "Venture" cars. Also note that not only does "made in America" require new untested "made im USA" components, but every order of Charger locos from Amtrak as well as Viaggios has has different configurations and thus model numbers. (you noted this for locos, but this means Amtrak will have many incompatible locos that look the same but are different inside and have different perforance.). The long distance ones not only have different horsepower, but also more powerful HEP generators to power the longer trains with power-hungry Superliners. Siemens has sold enough of those Venture cars/Charger locos to more than pay for the deisgn of a "made in America" train. But it isn.t about to import and redesign ist newer rolling stock so USA (and Canada) are stuck with whatever Siemens has right now. (and Siemens has a lot of pressure to fix all the bugs in cars and locos). Cars are also different models for each order. Some are AAR coupler at each end. Some are sets of 2 cars with permanent coupling and AAR at end of the 2 car duo, and some are permanent couplings for the whole train, some allow the lococmotive to be changed. And some have AAR coupler at the CaB end so train can be towed by other loco. There are differenr door designs as well. VIA for instance is blocking doors on one end of cars, while other orders have finctioning doors are both ends. The stairs to access low level platforms are different, and of course Brightline has no stairs as all their stations have high level plaforms and instead, they have platform gap fillers that extend out from under door as door opens. So when each order requires customization, it also means lots of testing and teething problems. Now, only to Amtrak cannibalizing Acella steel trains. VIA has done the same iwth its core LRC cards (as well as trabscontiental equipennt which it no longer has enough to run daily trains). Both Amtrak and VIA thought they would be getting the replacemet trains on time and stopped orderig new spare parts for the old trains, but when the new trains turned out to be late, they were stuck with no spare parts and manufacturers no longer making them available. (For Amtrak part of issue was lack of communications internally between the gusy working on new train project and the guys taking care of old steel Acellas). The new Acellas have fancy tilting system: in the past, active tilting had a probem of delay between entering curve and cars reaching the proper tilting level to cancel the curve and this makes people sick. These new Acellas will use GPS and on-board route database to preduce when they are about to enter a curve and start to bank before the lateral G force is felt so it can be cancelled. (this is one reason FRA is wanting all i dotted on this because brand new and not used before).

nice to see Amtrak finally get some love again.

Desperately hope a museum gets a metroliner cab car. Love those things

I live in Olean, NY. That's the town that's holding 2 of the Acela sets in the WNY&PRR freight yards. That's ex-Erie, ex-Pennsylvania and ex-Conrail territory. While I enjoy seeing the sets in the freight yards behind the Home Depot, I do wish they were working along the corridor. Even better: I wish we had these sets zipping through Olean on their way to Chicago, like the old Erie Limited used to.

amtrak is so nice when you look at it for what it is, i took the starlight from LA to San Jose and it was nice to just sit and get some amazing views while relaxing

The biggest question is, what about the replacement of superliners and Amfleets on routes such as the silver meteor?

Top priority must be safety with a major focus on infrastructure and absolute assurance of track and rail integrity.

What an exciting video. Issues with Alstom's trains notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to the new look and feel of Amtrak, especially on the NEC where I live. Hopefully the infrastructure will be improved at a fast rate. Portal Bridge is already under construction so that's a huge deal within itself.

I would rather say that the Genesis series of locomotives are past their ORIGINAL intended service life, but are still quite useful and have been seemingly more reliable in the first couple of year, especially in winter climates. I'm sure that will be sorted out by the time the P42's are retired but it's just an observation. They don't seem to be as dangerous as the Acela sets. Those are actually "well past the end of their useful service lives" as you said about the Genesis series.

I'm so glad to hear that the Cardinal line (from NY to Chicago and along the Ohio River where I live) is going back to daily service for the first time in 40 years.

I'm really excited for the Airo trainsets, because they look really great and they're an awesome next step for Amtrak, but I'm almost a little bummed to see the ACS-64s go. I know that they'll be something like 15+ years old by the time Airo is fully implemented, but I can't help but feel like they still have a lot of life left in them. The AEM-7s lasted Amtrak like 30+ years. At least they'll go to other rail systems where they'll serve for some time.

I think Amtrak’s biggest issue, like most passenger rail across North America (both US and Canada) happens to be the freight companies getting in the way.

I think once Amtrak's older engines and cars some of them should be preserved at museums to remember their history

I had a feeling the HHP-8s and Genesis units were gonna be rebuilt into NPCUs or cab cars at some point in their service lives!

That’s all very exciting, but I hope Amtrak Management takes note of the fact that, from what I have read, the new venture cars look nice, I’ve heard the seats aren’t very comfortable, don’t recline, and half the car sits forward, the other half sits backward. If they don’t make improvements to those features, long distance coach passengers aren’t going to be happy riding in those coaches. The trouble with Amtrak management, they probably don’t ride the trains enough to get a first hand experience. I’m glad as we travel to and from Chicago on the Lakeshore, we get a sleeper. Thanks for the update