Airo - Amfleet I replacement Siemens Inter City Trainsets (ICT) (2Q 2024)

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jis

jis

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Amtrak Equipment Procurement Update as of 4-25-24:

On the Airo trainset: This procurement is moving full speed ahead. They are closing out design efforts.
Working on FAIsd and wrapping up work on various systems. 40 vehicles are in production – 4 Locomotives
and the rest (36) are coaches.
The first will go on the Pacific Northwest for testing – and 12 months later into service.
They are building out a commissioning facility for Airo and others.
Overall, this procurement is progressing “pretty well”.
On the ALC 42: Work on this equipment is progressing steadily with 50+ units in service. The total to be
purchased is 125. Performance has steadily improved -working Amtrak with the OEM has been successful.
On the Long-Distance Fleet: This is an active procurement. Amtrak continues to respond to questions from
the car builders within the RFP process. from NEGC.com
 
Dutchrailnut said:
Amtrak Equipment Procurement Update as of 4-25-24:

On the Airo trainset: This procurement is moving full speed ahead. They are closing out design efforts.
Working on FAIsd and wrapping up work on various systems. 40 vehicles are in production – 4 Locomotives
and the rest (36) are coaches.
The first will go on the Pacific Northwest for testing – and 12 months later into service.
They are building out a commissioning facility for Airo and others.
Overall, this procurement is progressing “pretty well”.
On the ALC 42: Work on this equipment is progressing steadily with 50+ units in service. The total to be
purchased is 125. Performance has steadily improved -working Amtrak with the OEM has been successful.
On the Long-Distance Fleet: This is an active procurement. Amtrak continues to respond to questions from
the car builders within the RFP process. from NEGC.com
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update. That was fast, the last update was only a few weeks ago at a meeting posted on YouTube, which showed 33 coaches and 2 locomotives in production for Airo.
 
Here is a question that is just though. Are all the Siemens passenger cars and future LD cars going to be able to work any train? Mainly thinking about the various inter car connections. Loco control, car control & now the firewire cable connections. It would short sighted to not apply all those to all cars. Look at the problems of rewiring Amfleet-1s and Superliner - 1s for at least loco control. Do not know if that project is complete?

It would be very poor if Airos could not supplement LD trains if they are not interchangeable.
 
Steve4031 said:
IMHO Amtrak should resurrect the Chicago to Philadelphia Pennsyvanian. An Empire Service train could be extended to Cleveland and hopefully connect with the Pennsylvanian.
Click to expand...
Cleveland station will need major track building to make it possible to merge/split trains there. Toledo is a better location to do such.

west point said:
Here is a question that is just though. Are all the Siemens passenger cars and future LD cars going to be able to work any train? Mainly thinking about the various inter car connections. Loco control, car control & now the firewire cable connections. It would short sighted to not apply all those to all cars. Look at the problems of rewiring Amfleet-1s and Superliner - 1s for at least loco control. Do not know if that project is complete?

It would be very poor if Airos could not supplement LD trains if they are not interchangeable.
Click to expand...
Airos are integrated and articulated sets with special electronics supporting unit based service. They are not meant to be split and cars reused elsewhere. So it is safe to say that that will not happen. Airos will be corridor trains. The single level LD will be entirely different. And as is true today, bi-level LD equipment will not be cross usable with single level anything except for using an awkward connection through a Trans-Dorm car.

So the bottom line is - you will be disappointed by design ;)
 
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The path for the single level LD has also not been set. Amtrak is considering two paths for the single level fleet - one of which is a full scope RFP similar to what they're doing for the bilevels that would cover the whole program and essentially replace everything (Viewliner 2s would continue to be used with the new equipment to the extent possible.) The other path would continue on with the Viewliner family and just replace the Amfleet 2 coaches and lounge/cafe cars - most likely with Airo based options that they have with Siemens (modified for the purposes of long distance of course). The primary decision point on the path is a decision about whether to life extend or replace and retire the Viewliner 1 sleepers as part of the program. The bilevel fleet had only one path under consideration - full replacement and is more complex and urgent so that's why it moved ahead first.
 

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