(The following article by Keith Reed was posted on the Boston Globe website on June 4.)
BOSTON — Some of Amtrak’s sidelined Acela Express trains might be ready for service again before the end of this month, according to an executive with one of the train’s manufacturers.
Andre Navarri, president of Bombardier Transportation, told a group of reporters in Montreal this week that at least some of the 20 Acela trains, all of which were pulled from service in April after cracks were found in their brake discs, should be fixed in the next several weeks.
Bombardier is trying to decide whether replacing the damaged discs or installing redesigned discs is the quickest and best way to get the trains running again. The company got a shipment of redesigned discs on May 27, and plans to test them on Acela trains, Bombardier spokesman David Slack said yesterday.
After performing test runs and determining which discs to use, the only remaining hurdles to resuming some Acela service would be approval from Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration.
But while Acela’s manufacturer is confident that Amtrak’s flagship service in the Northeast will be back on track sooner rather than later, officials with the railroad said they still have no firm timeline for when the service might be ready.
”We have not been told any time frame” by Bombardier, said Tracy Connell, an Amtrak spokeswoman. ”We are still hopeful that we’ll return them throughout the summer.”
Acela Express, a high-speed train Amtrak started running between Washington and Boston in 2000, has been out of service since inspectors found tiny cracks in one of the trains’ brake discs after speed tests in New Jersey.
In all, about 300 of the 1,440 brake discs on the Acela trains were found to have similar cracks.
In testimony before Congress last month, Amtrak inspector general Fred E. Weiderhold Jr. said that some of the cracks had been detected by inspectors as early as two years ago but were never reported to Amtrak.
The financially ailing railroad is losing about $1 million in revenue each week while Acela is sidelined.