ACELA's shut down due to brake problems.

[Ray L. Nutz]

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Amtrak said it had canceled service Friday on its Acela

Express because of problems with brakes on the high-speed trains that carry

passengers between Washington, New York and Boston.

Cracks were found in brake components on most coaches of the trains during

routine inspections, Amtrak said in a statement, adding that no brake

failures or other safety problems had occurred.

Most other Amtrak service was scheduled to operate normally. Amtrak said its

Metroliner service will operate Friday, with the exception of train No. 102,

the 10:00 a.m. departure from Washington to New York, which was also

canceled.

Amtrak normally runs 15 Acela weekday roundtrips between New York and

Washington and 11 between New York and Boston.

The express trains will remain out of service until the brake problems are

fixed.

Amtrak said Acela accounts for about 20 percent of its Boston-New

York-Washington weekday service.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

 

[Guest]

Well that's reassuring.

 

[Viewliner]

Here's the official Amtrak Press Release.

I can't believe it, I really cant

Truly a testament to the Warrington era, it's crowning jewel...this hunk of junk. It's a nice train, but mechanically it seems to suck. Hopefully this will be the end of all of Acela's troubles...but with this arising I'm not too confident about this. The one good thing is that they found this problem before a derailment occured and people's live became at stake.

Now we've gotta wonder about the HHP-8's, whether they too will need to be pulled since mechanically they are similar to Acela. Ironic how now that Amtrak was about to rid all Metroliners from the schedule this happens...looks like they may want to rethink this move.

 

[AlanB]

Now we've gotta wonder about the HHP-8's, whether they too will need to be pulled since mechanically they are similar to Acela.

Well the story posted by Ray seems to indicate that the Acela brake problem lies with the coaches, not the power cars. That would mean that it would not affect the HHP-8's.

To further support that conclusion, is the fact that the press release says that Amtrak is otherwise running normal service on the corridor. The loss of 15 HHP-8's would not permit normal service.

Remember during the bracket problem, Amtrak still had the E60's in service and even then they had to borrow a few electric motors from NJT and MARC to maintain normal service.

 

[Viewliner]

Here's the latest release. Amtrak is adding Regionals for rush hour/evening to accomodate passengers:

2 are operating NYP-BOS (Trains 2166 and 2174 departing at 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM Respectively).

2 are operating BOS-WAS (Trains 2171 and 2173 departing at 3:20 PM and 4:20 PM respectively)

Seems like things aren't doing too badly considering, this is one of the top stories on the local news here in the NY Metro Area. The CBS 2 story had passengers who generally weren't overly upset, understanding it's out of safety.

 

[Viewliner]

Sorry, the link in my second post is the same as the one above.

 

[engine999]

I agree with viewline, the acela's are just a hold over from warringtons administration. Well they look to be another fine Bombardier product. The Las Vegas monorail had its share of mechanical problems. Good thing Gunn decided that no more acela trainsets are going to be ordered. They need to get a redesign if new highspeed sets are ordered.

 

[gswager]

I agree with viewline, the acela's are just a hold over from warringtons administration. Well they look to be another fine Bombardier product. The Las Vegas monorail had its share of mechanical problems. Good thing Gunn decided that no more acela trainsets are going to be ordered. They need to get a redesign if new highspeed sets are ordered.

I'm curious since those Acelas are "prototypes", so are Las Vegas monorails. They learn mistakes and weakness of parts and work on better one, like vehicles in its' first year which tends to be higher rate of failures than 2nd year model.

There are other makers of high speed trains but none are in North America (except for Canada Bombadier). I figure it would be a huge amount of "red tape" to import from Europe, so why wasting not to buy an improved version due to problems of 1st year Acela trainsets?

 

[AlanB]

First, let's be fair. The Acela debacle has many partners, including Congress, Warrington, Amtrak's design engineers, and Bombardier. All the blame should not fall just on Warrington and/or Bombardier.

Second, while Acela is a first generation design, the Las Vegas monorails are not. Bombardier already built MARC-VI monorails for Disney World. Yes the Vegas models are an updated design, but the basic technology is proven and tested.

The Vegas problems are either a result of underfunding and/or Bombardier's management/maintenance of the trains. It's not the design itself that's causing the problems.

 

[Viewliner]

Latest Word from NBC 4 is that suspension will last till next Wednesday and Amtrak officials think it'll take two months for all Acela sets to be put back in service.

 

[AlanB]

But late Friday, Amtrak officials said the Acela Express may be back in service by Wednesday.

The full story from 1010 Wins News Radio.

 

[AlanB]

Despite the above news story, so far Arrow only shows Acela's blocked out thru Sunday night. At present one can still make reservations for Acela Express service on Monday the 18th.

We'll see if that changes in the near future. However, with 1,440 disc brake assemblies to inspect and possibly repair/replace, I'm sure it will take some time. And if replacements are needed, that could be a big problem as I can't imagine that anyone has that many disc brake assemblies just sitting around.

 

[GG-1]

First, let's be fair.  (snip)
The Vegas problems are either a result of underfunding and/or Bombardier's management/maintenance of the trains.  It's not the design itself that's causing the problems.

Aloha

I have followed the Los Vegas monorail problems quite closely, as I want them here on Oahu. There are two issues. One, the required testing was approximatlly equal to 8 years of running the schedule, before allowing passengers to ride. There is a monarail web site that tells about them. I will edit this message when I get home with the address. AS Promised here is the address

The second issue, is design related. The Mark ## were all designed for much broader turns than the required 90 deg. turns for Vegas and was the reason for the stearing failures. This is also explained on the Monarail Site.

 

[AlanB]

The Las Vegas Monorail website can be found here.

 

[GG-1]

The Las Vegas Monorail website can be found here.

Mahalo Allan

There is also another one that specializes in Monorail systems arount the world. It is the one that described all the testing.

 

[Conrail]

could of lost some lives

 

[Steve4031]

Despite the above news story, so far Arrow only shows Acela's blocked out thru Sunday night. At present one can still make reservations for Acela Express service on Monday the 18th.
We'll see if that changes in the near future. However, with 1,440 disc brake assemblies to inspect and possibly repair/replace, I'm sure it will take some time. And if replacements are needed, that could be a big problem as I can't imagine that anyone has that many disc brake assemblies just sitting around.

I wouldn't make reservations until I was sure that I was going to get an Acela.

On the inside, the cars are much better than Amfleets, metroliners, etc.

I'm glad they at least caught the problem and prevented any casualties. Unfortunately, Amtrak's probablly gonna take a hit financially for this. :angry:

 

[jccollins]

Amtrak High-Speed Service Canceled at Least 6 Days (Update6)
April 15 (Bloomberg) -- Amtrak, the U.S. national passenger railroad, said the suspension of its Acela high-speed service connecting Boston, New York and Washington will last at least six days and as long as two months.

It is currently the top story over at Google News.

 

[AlanB]

It's official now:

Updated: April 15, 2005 6:30 EDT
WASHINGTON - Amtrak's Acela Express service has been cancelled through Wednesday April 20. Passengers with reservations on these cancelled trains will be accommodated on other regular Amtrak service.  As additional equipment becomes available, extra frequencies will be added in place of the cancelled trains.

Acela passengers should call 1-800-USA-RAIL to adjust their existing reservations. Passengers who are accommodated on other Amtrak service will be refunded the difference of the two ticket prices. Passengers who board an Amtrak train holding an Acela ticket will need to keep their receipts in order to later receive their price adjustment. If passengers wish to cancel their reservations, full refunds will be given.

During routine inspections of Amtrak's high-speed Acela Express trains Thursday night, cracks were discovered in the brake rotors of the trains. No brake failures or other safety problems have occurred and these cancellations are as a precautionary measure.

All other Amtrak service will operate as scheduled, including Regional, Clocker, Keystone, Empire and long-distance train service. Metroliner service will also operate.

Acela Express train service will resume when Amtrak is confident the brake problem is resolved and the trains are safe to operate.

The full story can be found here.

 

[Ray L. Nutz]

It may even be longer than Wednesday, sofar about 20% of all rotors inspected have cracks.

To change rotors a wheel has to be removed from Axle. so first Axle has to be removed from truck etc.

Amtrak most likely has more than maybe 15 Axles ready for swaps now.

And that does not figure on why these cracks all of sudden are happening, its not like they found cracks on oldest sets, but all at same time.

Did something change ??? Dynamic brake cut back ?? different cab signal/ATC settings, or did someone change maintenace procedures after takeover of maintenance from Bombardier.

Did someone authorize different brake pads ???

just speculating here.

 

[jccollins]

Passengers who board an Amtrak train holding an Acela ticket will need to keep their receipts in order to later receive their price adjustment.

I like how they say Amtrak Train vs. Acela Train like they are two completely different trains operated by two completely different companies. Last I heard Acela trains were still Amtrak trains. Is it sloppy drafting, or a subtle move to break off the troublesome Acelas into their own company? :lol:

 

[AlanB]

Here's a slightly technical explanation of what happened and the work required to fix things from Railwayage's late breaking news.

Amtrak has removed all 20 of its Acela Express trainsets from service on the Boston-New York-Washington Northeast Corridor after cracks were found in the braking system on many of the trainsets’ coaches during routine inspections. Cancelled are 15 New York-Washington trains and 11 New York-Boston trains, which will remain out of service until the problem is resolved.
That could take a considerable amount of time. The cracks have been found in the spokes of the axle-mounted hubs that support the coaches’ inboard disc brake rotors. There are three inboard rotors per axle, four axles per coach. Multiplying that by six coaches yields 72 hubs and rotors per trainset. That’s 1,440 integral hub/rotor assemblies in the fleet of 20 trainsets. The only way to replace the hubs is to drop every wheelset, remove every wheel, and remove every hub/rotor assembly.

Much is unclear at this point: Whether the hubs can be replaced without modifications or if a redesign is needed, and how long that will take. Whether there are enough spare hubs in inventory (probably not). Whether Amtrak will be able to substitute Amfleet-equipped trains to protect NEC service. In any case the spoke-cracking problem most likely means the Acela Express will not be in service for a while. That service accounts for 53,000 NEC seats—over $6 million in revenue—weekly.

 

[Steve4031]

It looks like the Acela's could be out for at least a couple of weeks, and then a few months before they get back to full service.

 

[IceColdMintJulep]

I'm sure some machinists are earning some good overtime.

 

[AlanB]

The latest:

Amtrak, scrambling to cover the Acela Express trips in between Washington and Boston after brake problems were discovered, will have one high-speed train back in service on Monday.
Spokeswoman Tracy Connell said the 8 a.m. Acela Express from New York to Washington will operate Monday and be turned around to make a 2 p.m. run from Washington to Boston.

The full story from USA Today.