(The following article by Daniel Machalaba and Christopher J. Chipello was posted on the Wall Street Journal website on June 27.)
NEW YORK — The supplier of the brakes that paralyzed Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains after developing potentially catastrophic cracks changed the design of the parts while the trains were being built to include longer, thinner spokes that might have been weaker than the original design.
Investigations by Amtrak, the U.S. government and companies that helped manufacture the Acela haven’t yet concluded there is any link between the revised brake design and cracks discovered in April in hundreds of the 1,440 brake discs used to stop the trains. But scrutiny has fallen on the change, and the plan for getting the trains rolling again as soon as next month includes installing brakes based on the abandoned design.
The decision to replace the original design and now revive it to get Acela trains back on track raise new questions about Amtrak’s handling of the Acela project, which has been hobbled by problems almost from the start. The moves also suggest that sorting out responsibility for the passenger revenue lost during the Acela shutdown and costs related to replacing the brakes is likely to be complicated and contentious.
“The new brake design has spokes that appear to be significantly stronger than those which developed the cracks,” said Glenn Brandimarte, president of ORX Railway Corp., the company replacing the flawed brake discs with a version made using the nine-year-old design.
The brake-design switch was made nearly three years before Acela trains started running in December, 2000, and was approved by Amtrak and Bombardier Inc., the Montreal transportation-equipment maker that leads the consortium that built and maintains the trains. Knorr-Bremse AG, the brake’s supplier, said it changed the design partly to help satisfy Buy America requirements set by Amtrak, although it didn’t clarify how the design change would have put it in compliance with the requirement. Knorr also considered its original brake design merely a “preliminary design concept,” deciding instead to use a lighter version supplied by a European subcontractor.
The replacement brake discs now being tested must be approved by Amtrak and the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration before Acela service can be restored. It likely will be this fall before all 20 trains are running. After winning the $850-million (U.S.) contract to build the Acela trains and maintenance facilities, Bombardier and Alstom SA hired Knorr to supply the brakes.
Amtrak, Bombardier and Knorr insist the change triggered no reason for concern. Helene Gagnon, a Bombardier spokeswoman, said the company “had no indication to believe” the second generation of brakes “would not perform,” noting that it “qualified as any other part for the Acela.”