(Bloomberg News circulated the following story by Angela Greiling Keane on March 23, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amtrak, the U.S. long-distance passenger railroad, asked Congress for $446 million to begin replacing locomotives and passenger cars as President Barack Obama increases transportation spending on rail.
Joseph Boardman, chief executive officer of Washington- based Amtrak, told a House Appropriations Committee panel today the railroad needs to raise its budget from the requested $2.1 billion for the next fiscal year in part to buy new Acela equipment for high-speed routes in the Northeast.
“Between 2002 and 2008, Amtrak increased its ridership by 32 percent without buying a single piece of new rolling stock,” Boardman testified at the transportation subcommittee hearing. “That’s a remarkable accomplishment, but one that cannot be sustained indefinitely.”
Passenger cars in Amtrak’s fleet have been in service for an average of 24 years, an all-time high for the railroad that plans to replace rail cars and locomotives over the next 30 years. Boardman said Amfleet I railcars, which he called the “backbone” of the regional service on the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, were built in the late 1970s.
“Imagine that you bought a Chevy El Camino back in 1977 and proceeded to drive it from D.C. to New York and back again, every single day since then with a day and a half off every month for maintenance,” he said.
The fleet replacement includes 20 Acela trainsets, in which locomotives and passenger cars operate as a unit, for Amtrak’s fastest route between Washington and Boston. Amtrak also plans to replace 334 locomotives and 1,200 rail cars, the company said in a fleet plan released last month.
Obama, in his economic stimulus package last year, allotted $8 billion for high-speed rail projects. California and Florida were the biggest winners of grants, announced in January.