Amtrak — the largest passenger rail operator in North America — recently awarded a $466 million contract to Siemens as part of its multi-year Fleet Strategy Plan.
The Fleet Strategy Plan calls for Amtrak's entire fleet of passenger rail cars and locomotives to be replaced over the next 30 years.
Through Siemens Mobility Division, the company will build 70 electric locomotives with energy efficient features for Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone Corridor lines.
“This isn't your grandfather's locomotive,” said Oliver Hauck, president of the Mobility Division of Siemens Industry Inc.
“Not only will we use renewable energy to build them, the locomotives will also include energy efficient features, such as regenerative braking that can feed up to 100 percent of the energy generated during braking back to the power grid.”
Already a producer of light rail trains in America, every third light rail vehicle in the United States is one of Siemens'.
According to a Siemens press release, the new trains will be Amtrak Cities Sprinters (ACS64), based on the latest iteration of the EuroSprinter electric locomotive.
These trains will be customized to meet the needs of the most heavily traveled rail route in the country — the Northeast corridor, which covers Washington D.C. to Boston — at a sustained speed of 125 mph, and up to 110 mph on the Keystone Corridor from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, PA.
“Amtrak's order for 70 new electric locomotives will not only create new manufacturing jobs, it supports the Department of Transportation's strategy to use transportation to build the infrastructure needed to support a modern growing economy, while helping make our cities more livable, improve the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said Joseph C. Szabo, Federal Railroad Administrator.
“This new equipment will go far in meeting the rapidly growing demand for intercity passenger rail service in the Northeast.”
Siemens is expected to hire an additional 200 people to build the locomotives at their existing manufacturing facility in Sacramento, CA. This facility already employs 750 people and is powered up to 80 percent by two megawatts of solar energy.
Fifty new jobs will also be divided between facilities in Alpharetta, Georgia, and Norwood, Ohio.
The design of the new trains also includes additional safety features not yet required, such as crash energy management components and easier maintenance.
We can expect to see the first of these new trains completed by February 2013.
In other locomotive news, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced 54 applications were selected to receive funding under the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program.
The HSIPR Program is intended to help address the nation’s transportation challenges by investing in an efficient network of passenger rail corridors that connect communities across the country.
Until Next Time,
Angela Guss
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