Wisconsin Talgo Trainsets and New Cab Cars See the Light of Day
THE FIRST OF TWO TALGO Series 8 trainsets for the state- sponsored Hiawatha Service be- tween Milwaukee, Wis., and Chicago was being tested outside the Talgo North America Centu- ry City assembly plant in Mil- waukee on February 26. (Centu- ry City is the former Tower Automotive plant at Townsend Avenue and 27th Street.) The 14- car trains feature the first combi- nation cab/auxiliary power cars in the United States. The ungainly nose contains crash energy management crum- ple zones, which enables the cars to meet Federal Railroad Admin-
istration Tier 1 end strength and compression requirements. The older Series VI Talgos used in the Pacific Northwest Cascades Service have cabless auxiliary power cars and normally operate with a locomotive at one end and an Amtrak NPCU (non-powered control unit, converted from an F40PH) on the other.
The aluminum body shells were assembled at Talgo’s factory in Spain and shipped to the Port of Milwaukee for final assembly in the city after
Amtrak
AMTRAK FIGHTS CN OVER DELAYS: Amtrak has filed a complaint with the Surface Transportation Board which alleges that Canadian National deliberately delays passen- ger trains. Amtrak questions how CN, with its scheduled freight trains and self-proclaimed “precision railroad,” can cause such wide- spread delays to Amtrak’s scheduled passen- ger trains. In one egregious example, four reg- ularly scheduled CN freights routinely delay Amtrak trains near Champaign, Ill.
BILEVEL SPECS RELEASED: Amtrak has released the revised specification for bi-level passenger equipment under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. The nearly 600-page document includes floor plans for all three variations (coach, control cab/baggage, and cafe/lounge). The cars will be capable of 125-m.p.h. operation and are in- tended for use in California and on Midwest- ern routes radiating from Chicago.
ACELA FLEET IS GIVEN FACELIFT: Am- trak has started to overhaul the first of 20 Acela Express trainsets, which were built by
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being trucked across town to the plant. At Century City, the cars are finished using local labor to install HVAC equipment, seat- ing, lighting, food service equip- ment, and other amenities. After the cars enter service, Century City will serve as an in- terim maintenance base for the new equipment. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is evaluating potential sites for a permanent maintenance facility located just south of the Milwau- kee Amtrak station, or at 17th Street and Mount Vernon Av- enue, a few blocks south of that. WDOT considers Century City to
be too far from the station to be able to turn the equipment quickly enough. The Wisconsin legislature also wants WDOT to study the op- tion of maintaining the Talgo equipment in Chicago. After the Wisconsin sets are finished, Talgo North America will build
two 13-car trains for the Oregon Department of Transportation, which will join the five Series VI sets in Amtrak Cascades service between Van- couver, British Columbia, Seattle, Wash., and Portland and Eugene, Ore.
Bombardier and went into service in 2000. Three dozen employees have been assigned to the task, working on the power cars at the Wilmington, Del., locomotive shop and the coaches at the Bear, Del., car shop. The entire fleet should be cycled through the program over the next three years.
SOUTHEAST HIGH SPEED RAIL REPORT: The Southeast High Speed Rail (SEHSR) Tier II Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Draft Recommendation Report is available for download at
www.drpt.virginia.gov. The re- port describes and illustrates the preferred rail alignment and alternatives for each of the 26 sections of the corridor between Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C., with maps and tables. The 162-mile Richmond to Raleigh segment
of SEHSR is part of the Washington, D.C., to Charlotte rail corridor. The route will use the abandoned CSX “S” Line (the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad), between Norlina, N.C., and near Collier Yard in Petersburg, Va. While ex- isting track and rights of way will be used to the greatest possible extent, the report recom- mends several major realignments along the “S” Line to eliminate curvature and support operation at up to 110 m.p.h.
SHREVEPORT SERVICE CONSIDERED: Amtrak and the Texas Department of Trans- portation plan to evaluate plans for a new state-sponsored route over Union Pacific track- age between Bossier City/Shreveport, La., and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Conventional equip- ment would make two round trips a day and serve seven intermediate stops which may in- clude Centre Port/DFW Airport (on Trinity Railway Express), Mesquite, Forney, Terrell, and Wills Point, Texas. The Texas Eagle cur- rently serves the majority of the route between Fort Worth and Marshall, Texas. Shreveport is currently served by an Amtrak Thruway bus which connects with the Texas Eagle at Longview, Texas. Amtrak will determine how much equipment would be needed to cover the new service, and UP will determine what ca- pacity improvements might be necessary.
SKOROPOWSKI GOES TO FEC: Eugene Skoropowski has been appointed senior vice president of passenger rail development at Florida East Coast. He will oversee the estab- lishment of Amtrak service over FEC between Jacksonville and Miami. Skoropowski had suc- cessfully managed Amtrak’s state supported Capitol Corridor service.
TWO PHOTOS, BOB GALLEGOS
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