Michael Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor and longtime rail junkie, knew all about Amtrak’s reputation for sluggishness, but he swore this time it would be different. As much as anyone, he wanted to take a train to New York City and Washington rather than an airplane shuttle.
“I haven’t had a satisfying trip to Washington in my last nine trips,” Dukakis, who is on Amtrak’s board, told a transportation group in May. And he delighted in the idea that he wouldn’t have to wait much longer for high-speed service. “The Northeast corridor will begin this fall, no foolin,’ ” he pledged. “October or November.”
But that was before engineers in Pueblo, Colo., testing the first of 20 new Acela high-speed trains this summer, discovered excessive wear on the wheels after the train went around curves. On Sept. 4, they postponed the debut of long-awaited, 150-mile-per-hour service to New York until at least spring.
Now, skeptics are questioning whether revitalized Northeast corridor service, whenever it happens, will live up to its billing, including providing the revenue that will keep Amtrak rolling.
Despite Amtrak’s promises, many had suspected the nation’s largest passenger rail company, a debt-ridden, 29-year-old business with a can’t-do-anything-right reputation, wouldn’t be ready with high-speed rail by year-end.
The delay disappointed thousands who are eager to trade driving, parking, riding a bus, flying and long, costly cab rides from the airport for a mode of travel whose time, they hope, has returned in America.
That would be a fast train with comfortable seats, decent food and spacious, office-like work areas that runs on time and arrives in its destination cities–not a 45-minute traffic jam away.
Though it will cost a good deal more than the current $100 round-trip fare for a five-hour ride from Boston to New York, frequent reliable service between the cities is expected to cut into the airline industry’s share of the Boston/New York commuter market.
“I think it’s the right call,” John Haley, New Jersey transportation undersecretary, said of the delay. “This is such a huge undertaking it’s got to be done right.”
That means at least several more months of tweaking and replacing parts in the trucks, the steel frames that hold the wheels of the new Acela (pronounced ah-CELL-ah) coaches.
The all-new train, originally the Metroliner but renamed to connote excellence and acceleration, was designed by the French company Alstom Ltd. and built by the Canada-based Bombardier Transportation.
It turned out that the trucks, rigid enough to allow a smooth ride on long, straight stretches at up to 150 m.p.h., were too stiff for curved portions of the track.
Gaetan Roy, manager of truck systems for Bombardier, said the wheels presented a more serious problem than anything expected in the trial period, which began in May. They had thought May through December would be long enough to resolve any problems.
“They’re looking at fine-tuning the elements of the suspension system,” Roy said.
Another problem, apparently discovered during assembly, is that clearance distances between tracks on curves will not allow the train’s “tilting” mechanism to move to its full 5.6-degree position.
The tilt gives passengers a comfortable ride even around curves at high speeds. Bombardier officials said that, while the tilt restriction will mean people will feel more centrifugal force, it won’t keep the trains from meeting their three-hour goal between Boston and New York.
James RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative (formerly the Northeast Corridor Initiative), gives Amtrak high marks for postponing. “In the past, Amtrak would have one train in December, a Potemkin train,” RePass said.
Amtrak President George D. Warrington, “showed real leadership” by taking time to make sure things work, RePass said. “The bottom line is they didn’t anticipate every problem, because no one can.”
“I’m glad they found the problem out during testing rather than having to take it out of service–but what an embarrassing thing for Amtrak,” said Wayne Davis, who is on the board of the National Association of Rail Passengers and is president of Train Riders Northeast.
Davis toured the first new train “sets” at a plant in New York. He called them “exciting, luxurious.” And he is looking forward to 2000, as the Amtrak high-speed service begins and, later in the year, intercity service is extended from Boston to Portland, Maine.
“Next year will really be the year of the train,” he said, though Davis has had numerous disappointments as Portland service has been delayed and re-delayed. As one New Hampshire official said, “It’s been two years away for 12 years.”
The success of high-speed rail in the Northeast corridor is so important that, to a large extent, the future of Amtrak rests on it. Amtrak has estimated revenue of $400 million from new Northeast corridor service through 2002. Dukakis said Amtrak’s estimate of profits may be conservative.
But the company has a goal of weaning itself from government subsidies by 2002, despite recent annual losses of $800 million, so it has a long way to go.
According to a July General Accounting Office report, “uncertainty surrounds Amtrak’s ability to achieve this.” It said much of the rail company’s future is “based on critical assumptions . . . that have yet to be tested in the marketplace.”
All major intercity rail services in the world are subsidized. Amtrak has received nearly $23 billion since 1971.
If the Acela flies and rail becomes the way to go–or just a popular alternative–in the Northeast corridor, other regions of the country could follow rapidly.
Two corridors in California and others in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, Southeast and Gulf Coast are in planning stages or early development.
Acela will have two classes of express service between Boston and Washington, with stops in Providence, R.I.; New Haven, Conn.; New York; Philadelphia; and Baltimore.
It will also operate slower service to Buffalo and Albany, N.Y., and Harrisburg, Pa.; between Springfield, Mass., and New Haven; and from Washington to Richmond and Newport News, Va.
