Free Republic

Delivering Amtrak's New Acela High Speed Trains In February 2020, Amtrak's first Avelia Liberty Acela set departed the Alstom factory in Hornell, NY. We made the trip to capture the action, along with the first "production" set which departed a month later to the Northeast Corridor!

Amtrak announced Friday it would temporarily suspend its Acela Nonstop trains between Washington and New York beginning March 10 amid concerns about the coronavirus. The company said in a statement that demand for direct routes between the cities has decreased and that nonstop service will be suspended through May 26. "As we are experiencing some reduced demand for our service, we are making temporary adjustments to our schedule, such as removing train cars or cancelling trains when there is a convenient alternative with a similar schedule that will have minimal impact to customers," Amtrak said in a statement. The statement...

<p>A high-speed Amtrak train bound for Penn Station broke apart as it was cruising through Maryland on Tuesday, sources told The Post. Modal Trigger A high-speed Amtrak train bound for Penn Station broke apart as it was moving at top speed through Maryland.</p>

Kennedy, in a book scheduled to be released Monday, provides an intimate picture of a dysfunctional family and some of its well-publicized struggles with alcoholism and mental health issues — and what he describes as a blanket of secrecy that papered over their problems...The book, which Kennedy will discuss on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night, is bound to rile other members of the famous family. “I know how some of them are going to react,” Kennedy says in a brief excerpt from the show released by CBS. “They’re angry.” He describes a drunken sailing trip in 2000 that turned out...

It’s not the first time that the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler has dropped a bunch of Pinocchios on claims from Democrats on Medicaid expansion, and it looks like it won’t be the last, either. Kessler even gave himself three Pinocchios a month ago for initially buying the White House spin on the Medicaid numbers. Today, he gives Barack Obama the maximum four Pinocchios for claiming that ObamaCare has resulted in seven million enrollments in the federal program for low-income Americans: “We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid...

The looming sequester is forcing the veep to take the train -- as opposed to military aircraft -- home to Delaware. Biden called it the one thing about the sequester that's working to his "benefit." Biden says he took nearly 8,000 train trips as senator, but the Secret Service made him travel by air because the Amtrak "gives too many opportunities for people to interact with me in a way they wouldn't like to see." But because of the looming budget cuts, "I was able to say, 'Look guys, I've got to take the train now -- it's cheaper than...

Amtrak announced plans Thursday to replace its fleet of high-speed trains on the East Coast. The railroad said that early next year, it would begin the process of replacing its 20 existing Acela Express train sets, which run on the Northeast Corridor rail line between Boston and Washington, DC. … Amtrak said Thursday that it had scrapped a previous plan to add 40 new passenger cars to the existing fleet, deeming it too expensive and “insufficient to handle new ridership growth projections.” …

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry is taking aim at the Acela bullet train, saying the 8-year-old line meant to zip passengers between Boston and Washington is riddled with speed and safety issues that have thrown its swift mission off track. “Are you kidding? That train can go 150 miles an hour, (but) it goes that for, what, a couple of miles?” Kerry scoffed. “I want America to have a first-rate high-speed rail system. A high-speed rail that really lives up to the name and gets people there in the time that we ought to be aiming for.” Kerry plans to...

Children's literature is full of bad-tempered railway engines that get overheated, blow their tops and make angry whooshing sounds -- only to get their comeuppance in the end. Amtrak President David Gunn just did his best imitation of a huffy little engine, lashing out at Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta for saying that the railroad should become more efficient. All Mr. Mineta did was agree with a report by his independent inspector-general, who found Amtrak could save $1.2 billion in operating and capital spending over five years by eliminating costly sleeping cars and modifying food and beverage service. The splenetic Mr....

Although it did not make the headlines, the latest snafu from Amtrak should convince everyone in Congress that federal subsides for troubled rail service need to go. At one point in our history there was a need for a national railroad. Train service was the norm before the airlines took over as the transportation method of choice. Now we are stuck with a poorly mismanaged cash hog that begs for mercy nearly every session of congress. When Amtrak was born in 1970, there were hopes that it would run the interstate railways at a profit within a few years. No...

The Acela Express was supposed to be the driving force behind a new Amtrak: a high-speed train that could travel between Boston and New York in three hours and attract millions of new customers to turn around the struggling national railroad. But since its maiden voyage five years ago -- a trip that ended 12 minutes late -- it has not worked out that way. Amtrak's decision on Friday to suspend the Acela Express service after cracks were found in almost 20 percent of the train's brakes marks the second time in four years that Amtrak had to shut down...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amtrak canceled all high-speed Acela trains between Washington and Boston for at least the next two days because of a safety problem, the railroad said on Friday. Amtrak, the nation's only city-to-city passenger railroad, said routine inspections on Thursday night uncovered cracks on the brakes of some trains. Amtrak normally operates 15 Acela Express weekday round-trips between New York and Washington and 11 Acela Express weekday round-trips between New York and Boston. All other Amtrak trains operated normally on Friday.

Emerging as one of Washington’s predictable summertime rituals is Amtrak’s annual search for ever-larger taxpayer subsidies to keep its trains running. Serving less than one percent of America’s intercity passengers, Amtrak has lost money in every single year of operation, and since 2001, annual losses have exceeded a billion dollars, after running in the $800-900 million range for most of the 1990s. In 2003, Amtrak managed to lose nearly $1.3 billion, its worst performance ever. Amtrak’s ticket sales don’t even cover its wage and salary costs, and total revenues from all sources cover less than two-thirds of its costs, leaving...

<p>I am a conservative. To be precise, I am a libertarian-conservative. That is to say I stand for personal liberty and tradition. In the scheme of government bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) those value are maintainable, with various requisite adjustments, all depending on the passing imbecilities of our fellow citizens.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. David Gunn, the man credited with turning around the New York City subway system in the 1980's, has found an equally daunting challenge. Amtrak, which he has led since May, seems to have cornered the market on self-inflicted debacles this year. Just as passenger rail traffic was soaring in the wake of the Sept. 11 airliner hijackings, Amtrak suffered two nasty derailments and the sidelining of its brand-new fleet of high-speed trains. The setbacks, coming at a time when the railroad's future hinges on an upcoming budget showdown in Congress, are...

Amtrak suspends most Acela service for repairs By LAURENCE ARNOLD The Associated Press 8/13/02 12:08 PM WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amtrak's summer of discontent continued Tuesday, when the railroad suspended most of its high-speed Acela Express service so it could inspect the trains for cracks in shock absorbers beneath their locomotive cars. Amtrak found the cracks below three locomotives. Two trains that passed the inspection Monday night were expected to be in service, spokesman Bill Schulz said. Inspections were continuing on Amtrak's 13 other Acela Express trains, which operate only between Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. Other Amtrak trains that...