Acela 21 (Avelia Liberty) development, testing and deployment (2Q 2024)
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JuniusLivonius
Service Attendant
Acela 2 specific information from today's press release:
https://media.amtrak.com/2024/12/amtrak-sets-all-time-ridership-record-in-fiscal-year-2024/
west point
Engineer
Suspect that Amtrak wants nothing to gum up inaugural month. Or at least first week. For it to go smoothly Amtrak will probably have a standby train set with engineer at NYP and WASH located on another platform. Maybe even another train set at PHL with engineer at either end in case it needs to be dispatched either direction.
Wonder how soon additional Acela trips will be initiated? The pictures of the interiors showed seats that appeared much more comfortable than some of the other new Siemen's cars.
Wonder how soon additional Acela trips will be initiated? The pictures of the interiors showed seats that appeared much more comfortable than some of the other new Siemen's cars.
Evidence that improbable rumors such as "failed egress test" are not to be taken seriously
Both can be true, you can overcome the oscillations at speed and fail a different component of testing resulting in an overall delay
jis
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I am still waiting for a credible source for that rumor about egress test though.
JuniusLivonius
Service Attendant
Extra #855 passing Morris on December 5th
Engines 2115-2142
An Acela II car (engine 2146) was hit by graffiti in Philadelphia
Reddit (safereddit) link: https://safereddit.com/r/Amtrak/comments/1ha8ksx/sad/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20241210001931/https://safereddit.com/r/Amtrak/comments/1ha8ksx/sad/
I saw the tagged train yesterday morning. I don't know if it was the same train, but the train sitting in the same place was graffiti-clean by 6:30pm that evening.
Someone on FB says it looks photoshopped.
Acela150
Super Buff
Look, Ma! No catenary! Fast Company uncritically posted a dopey photo, allegedly from Amtrak: https://www.fastcompany.com/91242054/amtraks-sleek-new-high-speed-electric-trains-are-coming-next-spring?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
Maybe the train coasted a couple of thousand miles beyond the end of the wire. And it appears to have baggage service too!
Maybe the train coasted a couple of thousand miles beyond the end of the wire. And it appears to have baggage service too!
jis
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Nothing dopey about it. It is a real photo of an Avelia Liberty consist on a delivery run from the factory to Amtrak. Of course it is powered by a diesel at the far end.
Sorry, I thought it was another Amtrak Photoshop job. I've seen a couple of news items about Amtrak unveiling the new Acela, but maybe Amtrak isn't issuing that photo as an illustration of the service that is supposed to commence next year. Maybe Fast Company latched onto that photo without realizing that the scenery and diesel operation are not typical of what and where the new Acela service is supposed to be.
JuniusLivonius
Service Attendant
Was there an Acela 2 trainset out last night on County - Ham or was it just another Charger set?
Acela150
Super Buff
I believe that it was a Charger set, Monday there were sent to Philly from Wilmington. If it was a Charger set it was 362 and 366.
I'll add that I did hear some rumors of them taking a set out this week. However, I'm not sure if that has happened or will happen.
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JuniusLivonius
Service Attendant
Yeah something's back tonight. KP2022 was at County but couldn't be given absolute block on track 3. They just got let through to go west to Ham at 9:57PM.
Came back to County at 10:41PM with a good running brake test heading west. That traction motor sound is definitely Avelia Liberty.
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desertflyer
Lead Service Attendant
Is there any indication of how quickly the first generation Acela trainsets will be retired once the Avelia Liberty sets enter service?
west point
Engineer
No indications. Speculation that if they can cannibalize enough parts they will remain until all 28-train sets of AX-2s are fully operational. Amtrak will probably not hold on to them afterwards as parking space for the AX-1s will be limited except at Bear and Wilmington.
Now if Amtrak has a major up tick in Acela demand it might keep some until Alstom can deliver more cars for AX-2s. But that will be around sometime in 2027 for orders which cannot really be forecast now.
It could be that Amtrak will want to start up with all the presently AX-1s and say 6 - 8 AX-2s to get the planned 28 Acela trains with a mix operating as soon as possible. Only then when more AX-2s delivered and certified for revenue service will Amtrak retire some of the remaining AX-1 train sets. However, this is all speculation due to passenger demand and any infrastructure upgrades needed including CAT improvements and maybe power needed especially 25 hZ capacity for 160 MPH operation.
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jis
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The plans that I have seen appear to be one for one replacement as they go along. The maintenance cost of the Acela Is gravitate against keeping them going for too long.
thefirewarde
Service Attendant
And the sooner Amtrak gets the lower capacity trainsets retired, the simpler bookings will be. Having different capacities running Acela service is guaranteed to cause confusion and overbooking or severe underutilization at some point, when the wrong number of seats are sold for a particular departure.
west point
Engineer
There are many unknown variables that will come into play for AX-1 retirements.
1. There were 20 AX-1s delivered with one additional track geometry car often inserted into any train set. 28 AX-2s are on order with last one not into revenue service until late 2026 or early 2027.
2. 2 AX-1s have been parked for parts. How many parts have come off passenger cars unknown, Power cars it is a lot of parts.
3. Does Amtrak want to go to having 28 Acela train sets available. If Amtrak wants to have a 28 train set availability immediately then AX-1s might stay around until at least 8 AX-2s are fully operational. If not then maybe 4 train sets will retire immediately once AX-2 service is fully operational.
4. Once AX-1 train sets start retiring Amtrak could take best passenger cars split them up and add then to remaining AX-1s making their capacity identical to the already operational AX-2s. When doing that the problem child power cars could be retired for parts.
None of the above may not happen if Amtrak cannot sell all the Acela space it will have. In that case the one for one may happen as soon as 4 AX-2s become fully operational.
