WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express service carried more than 2.5 million riders in its second year, which was marred by equipment problems, reports the Associated Press.
The trains, serving the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, generated nearly $293 million in ticket revenue in the 12 months ending Nov. 30, according to figures Amtrak released this week.
The high-speed service turns 2 on Wednesday.
Amtrak set ambitious goals for the sleek trains: They would carry 3.9 million riders in their first year, generating $300 million in revenue and netting $180 million. But the service is still not at full strength.
Spokesman Bill Schulz said preliminary calculations show that in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Acela Express generated $290 million in revenues, which exceeded expenses by more than $60 million.
In May, its best month, the service carried 266,862 passengers and sold $31.8 million in tickets. But it stumbled in August, when the entire fleet was sidelined after cracks were discovered near brackets holding shock-absorbing assemblies to the locomotives.
The trains are gradually being fixed and returned to service. The scaled-back service carried 141,230 passengers in August and 199,730 in September. Repairs have also begun on dozens of other problems.
Amtrak ordered 20 trains, each consisting of six passenger cars and two locomotives. Nineteen have been received from the builders, Canada’s Bombardier Transportation and France’s Alstom Ltd.
The first Acela Express entered service Dec. 11, 2000. As the manufacturers built each successive train, they made modifications based on lessons learned from those in service, so each train is slightly different. Amtrak has ordered repairs and modifications to all of them.
Amtrak and the manufacturers have sued each other in federal court over the problems. Bombardier says Amtrak imposed costly new design requirements. Amtrak blames Bombardier and Alstom for “extraordinary delays and pervasive failures.”
Before August, 15 Acela Express trains typically ran each day in Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Since then, Amtrak has returned 12 to daily duty, with three others in reserve, three more in maintenance and one out of service for modifications.
The trains can travel at 150 mph but, until expensive improvements are made to tracks in the Northeast, they reach that top speed only for 18 miles in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Schulz said Acela Express has succeeded in drawing travelers away from airplanes and onto trains in the Northeast.
“At the same time, we have to acknowledge it suffered mechanical kinks which we’re still getting straightened out,” he said. “We think in the long term we’ll continue to build ridership.”