At this point in time, nothing is set in stone. Things are most certainly looking up and going in the right direction at this time.
Currently Phase 2 of 3 is complete.
Nothing like good ole reddit providing that top quality news and content.
Hopefully before December 31 2099.
I would always trust Acela150 to verify or clarify whatever crap is spewed on Reddit.
Once 3 of 3 is completed does that mean the crews can get qualified on the train sets or is that able to happen beforehand?
Yes, maybe the sarcasm in my post wasn’t obvious enough?
So I'm honestly not sure how this will go. I can tell you that a decent percentage of the Philadelphia crew base is qualified on them. Which makes sense as it's the home terminal for testing. I do believe that OBS employees are getting some looks at the new equipment. Mechanical crews are for sure.
Everyone involved in this rollout should be fired. That includes Amtrak and Alstom.
Just a repeat of CAF problems.
One of CAF's problem was finding skilled labor with the right kind of skills. I don;t think that was a problem faced by Alstom on this order. Here the major delaying factor was getting the antiquated US rail infrastructure for passenger trains married with off the shelf high speed trains. We were all hoping for a miracle and that did not materialize. It was a challenge to make that marriage come to fruition. Hopefully now that the lessons have been learned from the first project, subsequent ones will go easier consuming less time and effort.
Amtrak's Inspector General has already reamed them a new one on Amtrak's oversight and management of this.
But none of them are trying to get certified for anything more than 125mph using Jacob’s Truck based articulation. Acela IIs are in a completely different space from the slow poke heavy stuff that is normal on the NEC. It is not like these high speed trains did not go through long drawn out certification pains when initially introduced in their native lands either.
