Amtrak Seeks Safety Changes to Allow US Bullet Train - Bloomberg News

[afigg]

There is an article in the Bloomberg news on Amtrak's plan for the Acela II order with comments from Joe Boardman titled "Amtrak Seeks Safety Changes to Allow US Bullet Train". The article covers much of is already known here, but confirms that the plan is to add 10-12 new trains before beginning to replace the Acela Is. The article does venture a bit into the funding and political situation and the upcoming re-authorization for Amtrak (which could have significant effects). Anyway, some excerpts from the article:

Boardman, in the interview, said he’d like to add at least 10 to 12 trains before beginning to retire the current Acela fleet. The cost, for which Amtrak said it will seek information from potential suppliers in early 2013, may be $30 million to $40 million per trainset, Boardman said.
It depends on how many we actually would purchase and whether anybody else in this country is going to move forward with high-speed trainsets,” he said.

So, has Amtrak had conversations with Xpress West on a possible combined purchase?

Boardman, who was FRA administrator from 2005 to 2008, said he’ll also challenge Congress this year to commit to maintaining taxpayer funding for long-distance train service outside the Northeast Corridor, so it can get the best value on equipment purchases.

 

[Anderson]

Well, while the latter may be a pie-in-the-sky thing, I'm glad he's at least pushing for a commitment rather than doing the "waiting on you" game that we've seen lately. As to the Acela IIs, $30-40m/set is a bit more reasonable than I'd feared. That could get a "full" Acela II programme in for $1bn or so on the low end (for 25-30 sets), and even an aggressive programme of 40 sets or so shouldn't run more than $1.5bn.

 

[Paulus]

Well, while the latter may be a pie-in-the-sky thing, I'm glad he's at least pushing for a commitment rather than doing the "waiting on you" game that we've seen lately. As to the Acela IIs, $30-40m/set is a bit more reasonable than I'd feared. That could get a "full" Acela II programme in for $1bn or so on the low end (for 25-30 sets), and even an aggressive programme of 40 sets or so shouldn't run more than $1.5bn.

It's certainly more reasonable than the $90 million they were budgeting for in the NextGen plan.