(The Washington Post posted the following article on its website on July 11.)
WASHINGTON — Amtrak resumed operation of two of its high-speed Acela trains today, three months after they were taken out of service because of brake problems.
The two trains will run twice each weekday between Washington and New York. Amtrak said the 18 remaining trains gradually will resume service once they get new brakes. The entire fleet was pulled from service in April after cracks were found in several brake rotors.
Today’s trains have been running normally. The 7 a.m. from Union Station arrived at Penn Station a minute late and the 7 a.m. train from New York pulled into Washington nine minutes early.
The Acela trains in operation and are outfitted with a new brake design, Amtrak said. Montreal-based Bombardier, Inc., which makes the Acela trains, has yet to disclose what caused the millimeter-size cracks in 317 of the Acela’s 1,440 disc brake rotors. The cracks were found on all 20 Acela trains.
The cracks were noticed April 14, when Federal Railroad Administration Safety Specialist Rich Thomas found them while performing a routine inspection after a high-speed run to test whether Amtrak could speed up the Acela trains slightly on curves in New Jersey between Trenton and Newark.