(The following article by Neil Downing was posted on the Providence Journal website on May 25.)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Those sleek-looking, idled Amtrak trains that can be seen from Route 95 in Providence, just north of the railway station, are part of Amtrak’s Acela fleet — the fleet that has been grounded because of brake problems.
The idled Acela trains in Providence — there have been two lately — are being stored at Amtrak’s maintenance-of-way base, which is about two miles north of the Providence station, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said.
Placing the Acela trains in storage in Providence frees some space at an Amtrak maintenance facility in Boston, Black said in a telephone interview on Monday.
The two Acela train sets that have been in Providence lately “will probably be replaced by some other sets a little bit later,” Black said.
“We’ll cycle them in and out [of Providence],” he said. “You might see more or less of them.”
Amtrak mothballed its entire 20-train Acela fleet last month after small cracks were found in 317 of the fleet’s 1,440 disc brake rotors. (Each Acela train has 72 brakes.)
The cracks were noticed April 14 by Federal Railroad Administration safety specialist Rich Thomas, who was performing a routine inspection after a high-speed run to test whether Amtrak could accelerate the Acela trains slightly on curves in New Jersey between Trenton and Newark.
Amtrak plans to bring the Acela back into service gradually, starting this summer. In the interim, Amtrak has substituted slower trains to operate its Washington-to-Boston trips, often employing Amtrak’s old Metroliner cars.
The Acela trains are made by Montreal, Canada-based Bombardier Inc. and Alstom SA of France.
William Spurr, president of Bombardier’s North American operation, said the cause of the cracks may not be known until the end of the month.
Bill Crosbie, Amtrak’s chief operating officer, said the Acela problem is costing the railroad more than $1 million a week in net losses.
Acela Express began operating in December 2000 and was billed as Amtrak’s answer to high-speed rail. When operating, the Acela trains run only along the Northeast corridor, with top speeds of 150 mph.
Amtrak’s problems with the Acela trains come just as President Bush is proposing to cut off all federal financing of Amtrak.
Amtrak is receiving $1.2 billion this year and requested $1.82 billion for next year.