New Locomotives Aid in Mission to Provide World-Class Technology to Amtrak Customers
In FY18, Amtrak posted record revenue with a total of 31.7 million customer trips in 2018 alone. With record levels, comes one of our first priorities – ensuring passenger rail remains the preferred mode of travel for business and leisure.
To continue providing top of the line service to customers, we’ve acquired new mainline passenger diesel locomotives from Siemens Mobility to replace our national locomotive fleet. This move will allow us to improve our reliability, hauling power, safety features and ultimately lower emissions. In fact, the new locomotives will offer the latest safety systems – including Crash Energy Management and Positive Train Control – will come equipped with the latest Tier 4 emissions technology – reducing nitrogen oxide by over 89 percent and particulate matter by 95 percent – and provide an average of 10 percent savings in diesel fuel consumption. The locomotives are also capable of reaching speeds up to 125 MPH and will have 4,400 horsepower capable 16-cylinder diesel engines with modern control systems and Alternating Current (AC) propulsion.
As part of the deal, we will be purchasing 75 locomotives that will be used for our long distance train service, powering trains used on the Auto Train, California Zephyr, Capitol Limited, Cardinal, City of New Orleans, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Empire Builder, Lake Shore Limited, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle. Following this update, we will also have the option to purchase additional locomotives in the future to continue growing Amtrak’s national network and service.
The new locomotives are part of Amtrak’s long-term planned series of improvements for fleet, infrastructure and stations. Additional upgrades include new Acela trainsets arriving in 2021, ongoing improvements at New York Penn Station, new construction at Moynihan Train Hall and expanded development of major stations in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.
We expect this to be one step in many on our mission to provide safe, world-class, environmentally conscious technology for our expansive services and fleet.
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