(The following article by Henry J. Holcomb was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on July 28.)
PHILADELPHIA — Amtrak said it would, on Monday, return more high-speed Acela Express trains to service.
The additional trains will give it nine weekday round-trips between Washington and New York, stopping in Philadelphia.
Three of these trains will serve the entire Boston-Washington Northeast Corridor with daily round-trips.
The high-speed trains, which entered service in 2000, were sidetracked April 15 when cracks were discovered in some brake disks.
Bombardier Inc., of Montreal, which in a consortium with Alstom S.A., of France, built the trains, is responsible for maintaining them.
When the problem was discovered Bombardier lacked sufficient replacement parts, forcing the trains out of service for months.
Amtrak’s hourly express service on the Northeast Corridor has been using aging conventional Metroliner equipment while replacement parts were redesigned, manufactured and installed.
This has created equipment shortages in the national passenger railroad’s 22,000-mile network that serves 500 cities.