WASHINGTON — Amtrak said it had restored over half of the 50 daily train departures on its high-speed Acela route on Monday, after potentially dangerous suspension-system defects prompted the passenger railroad to suspend operations last week, according to a wire service.
An Amtrak spokeswoman said the train operator planned to run 17 of its normal 32 weekday departures along the heavily traveled Washington to New York route, and 13 of its normal 18 departures along the New York to Boston circuit.
Nine of Amtrak’s 18 Acela trains are back in service, the spokeswoman said. She gave no estimated time for when the remaining nine trains will be fixed.
“We have restored 60 percent of our regular service,” she said. The spokeswoman gave no estimate for when the remaining 20 train routes would be restored.
Over the weekend, Amtrak restored limited Acela service with 11 departures each on Saturday and Sunday. The Acela is designed to reach speeds of up to 150 mph and cut travel time between New York and Washington to under three hours. But Acela service was interrupted partially and then fully after inspectors first discovered cracks on the yaw-damper brackets last week.
Since launching the premium service in late 2000, Amtrak has reported a raft of mechanical glitches on the locomotives, which are made by a consortium led by Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. .