The Maryland Transit Administration wants to spend $58 million to buy eight diesel locomotives for its MARC service to replace its fleet of electric engines — welcome news for commuting regulars.
MARC's electric locomotives, powered by an overhead line called a catenary, have been prone to breakdowns, especially in hot weather.
"Sometimes it causes a cascading problem where you have other trains down the line affected," said MTA spokesman Paul Shepard. "Putting additional diesels on the tracks will improve reliability of service and will enhance the passenger experience."
The MTA is moving to make the purchase now because Amtrak plans to stop maintaining MARC's electric fleet. The national railroad, which has maintained MARC's electric locomotives since 1983, notified the agency last fall that it would discontinue that work next summer.
Amtrak told the Maryland agency it cannot keep spare parts for MARC's aging electric fleet in stock anymore because it no longer uses them itself.Kimberly Woods, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said Amtrak has had some of the same locomotives, but the national passenger railroad is moving to replace them.
The MTA plans to ask the state Board of Public Works for permission to piggyback on an Illinois contract with Siemens Industry Inc. to buy the diesel engines.
Concerns about the reliability of MARC peaked in June 2010 when a Penn Line train with an electric locomotive stalled outside Washington in 100-degree heat and the passengers were stranded there for two hours. The so-called "hell train" incident became an issue in the 2010 gubernatorial election between then-Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
MARC owns 10 electric locomotives, which can operate only on its Penn Line between Perryville and Washington. MARC also has 25 diesel locomotives, which are used on the Camden and Brunswick lines as well as the Penn Line. The Camden Line runs between Union Station and Baltimore's Camden Station. The Brunswick Line runs from Martinsburg, W.Va., to Union Station.
Shepard said four of MARC's electric locomotives are 27 years old, near the end of their useful life, while six are 15 years old and do not have a good record for reliability. He said the older models will be scrapped as soon as there are diesels to replace them. The newer models will be evaluated to determine whether they can still be useful.
He said the electric engines in MARC's fleet have a reliability rating of 40 percent to 50 percent — meaning that on average, they are out of service more than half the time.
MARC's diesel fleet, which was replaced about five years ago, has a reliability rating of 85 percent, Shepard said.
Rafi Guroian, a rider on the Penn and Camden lines, won't miss the electric locomotives.
"The old electrics from the 1980s belong in a museum," said Guroian, a former head of the MTA's MARC Riders Advisory Council. The newer ones, he said, "should have lasted another 10 years but they were plagued with breakdowns."
It was one of those newer models that was pulling the "hell train."
Steve Chan, the current advisory council chairman and a Penn Line rider, welcomed the decision to acquire the diesels.
"Hopefully, they'll be nice and reliable and not be bothered by the heat as much," he said.
There is a small trade-off in terms of speed. The diesel engines have less horsepower than the electric engines and cannot go as fast. But Shepard said the difference amounts to no more than five minutes on an express run on the Penn Line from Washington to Perryville.
Shepard said that by piggybacking on the Illinois contract, Maryland will be able to buy the locomotives at a volume discount and save taxpayers money. The MTA said it conducted a national search to find the deal with the best price.
A date has not been scheduled for the matter to go before the public works board. It had been on Wednesday's board agenda but was withdrawn after a losing bidder filed a complaint with the federal government, Shepard said. He said the MTA believes the complaint has no merit but it would likely take several weeks to resolve.
The diesel locomotives are not expected to be delivered until the fall of 2017, Shepard said. That means that for a little over a year, MARC will have to take over maintenance of the electric locomotives.
mdresser@baltsun.com
081552A date has not been scheduled for the matter to go before the public works board. It had been on Wednesday's board agenda but was withdrawn after a losing bidder filed a complaint with the federal government, Shepard said.
Is this now old news? That 'losing bidder' was EMD (over a theoretical analysis that said the Siemens/Cummins design could not achieve a full 125 mph with rated load, as the bid spec required), but that was a comparatively long time ago.
More recently I have heard reports that ACS-64s are reliable enough to be considered by MARC -- be interesting to know from a reliable source how true this is now.
I do remain unsure -- even with Cummins -- that the high-speed diesels in these lightweight locomotive designs will hold up. Surely the high-speed commuter service on the Penn Line is at least as hard on those engines as HSR running would be?
Well MARC might get what they pay for. Granted their HHP-8s are a disaster and can understnd why Amtrak does not want to maintain them any more.
But there will be unintended consequences. The Penn line WASH - Baltimore is only 2 or 3 tracks not the 4 NYP - PHL. Same as well to Perryville and the future to Wilmington. MARC already has to wait for departures from WASH and BAL whenever they will depart less than 10 minutes before an Amtrak train. Believe that is when their Penn line trains are diesel powered. Buying a reliable electric motor ( ACS-64 ) would be much more correct. Of course they could schedule 2 diesels on each train to match the 8400 HP and faster acceleration
That might even become an Amtrak requirement since MARC wants to add more trains or have MARC just build out the tracks to 4 from WASH - BAL - Perryville.. Speed and fluidity are important in Amtrak's future plans. Another reason for 4 new tunnels at B&P tunnel.
So if 2 locos happen they can pay more for 2 diesels than 1 electric motor.
Will diesels in the Baltimore tunnels require waiting time for the fumes to clear?
People elsewhere seem to think that a lot of this is a sort of blackmail attempt to get Amtrak to lower their electricity rates, since diesel replacements will accelerate slower. As noted, the NEC in this stretch already has capacity issues.
With a Tier IV design, there really isn't much in the way of fleet compatability with the MP36PH-3Cs to speak of.
NorthWestWith a Tier IV design, there really isn't much in the way of fleet compatability with the MP36PH-3Cs to speak of.
What it's really time to do -- especially at that price -- is to dust off the old Conrail-study version of a dual-mode diesel and incorporate it into the MARC locomotives. That would allow draw of the 'extra' catenary power for acceleration when needed, and perhaps make up any shortfall observed at top speed from the Cummins engine.
You could do a full dual-mode locomotive, but I don't think that's warranted in this situation; the idea would be to 'boost' what the diesel can accomplish while preserving what the diesel can produce at best efficiency (for any given speed and load) as baseline performance.
You're still stuck purchasing electricity from Amtrak at prices which MARC apparently considers exorbiant. (Maybe an attempt to recoup some of the supposedly below cost commuter access?)
$7.25 million apiece seems like a lot, since presumably these can be an off-the-shelf design for an 125MPH diesel. This is about what the custom design ALP45-DPs were built for.
So what is the electricity rate ? And what does Amtrak pay for the electricity ? Same old problem; The electric distribution system is old and fragile needs replacing. If Congress would assign funds to upgrade MARC would not need to pay high (?) rates.
e
For us Europeans, such a development sounds crazy.
The typical situation is to extend electrification, not buy new diesels instead of old electrics. But the typical cost of electricity is lower than diesel fuel in this continent (about 1/3rd, especially if you include the higher acceleration and lower running times)
N.F.
The US is not Europe. MARC's diesel decision is based more upon maintenence costs than fuel costs. Amtrak has been performing the maintenence on the MARC electric engines, which were near identical to the engines Amtrak was operating. With Amtrak switching over to the ACS Sprinter engines, they were going to skyrocket the maintenence fees for the MARC orphan engines. MARC features new diesels that MARC personnel can maintain are the most effective economic solution to their needs. The diesels can be used on ALL MARC routes, not just the Penn Line which is the only MARC line that is electrified.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
blue streak 1 Well MARC might get what they pay for. Granted their HHP-8s are a disaster and can understnd why Amtrak does not want to maintain them any more. But there will be unintended consequences. The Penn line WASH - Baltimore is only 2 or 3 tracks not the 4 NYP - PHL. Same as well to Perryville and the future to Wilmington. MARC already has to wait for departures from WASH and BAL whenever they will depart less than 10 minutes before an Amtrak train. Believe that is when their Penn line trains are diesel powered. Buying a reliable electric motor ( ACS-64 ) would be much more correct. Of course they could schedule 2 diesels on each train to match the 8400 HP and faster acceleration That might even become an Amtrak requirement since MARC wants to add more trains or have MARC just build out the tracks to 4 from WASH - BAL - Perryville.. Speed and fluidity are important in Amtrak's future plans. Another reason for 4 new tunnels at B&P tunnel. So if 2 locos happen they can pay more for 2 diesels than 1 electric motor.
Still maintain that the unintended consequences of buying diesels instead of electric motors will come to haunt MARC. Personally believe diesels would be less expensive but the max speed problems with only 2 tracks are real. If the whole route was 4 track including 4 new B&P tunnels then diesels would be the way to go.
Once the new Acela-2s are operating there will be more traffic PHL - Wilmington - WASH. Who will suffer ? Why MARC of course not the regionals.
One point. We have no idea what the performance requirements for MARC operating on the Penn line. It may be that MARC may not be penallized. OTOH MARC might have to pay for most or all of the expansion to 4 additional tracks, 2 of new B&P tunnels, some of the 3 antique Maryland draw bridges, & additional station platforms at Wilmington.
Another possibility is that MARC's Camden and Brunswick lines increase traffic so much that all of those trains would need all the diesels there and buy new electricts then. Compatibility of course then might be a problem.
If this decision to fore go electric motors at this time is based on perceived problems with Amtrak's ACS-64s then IMO that it is not enough time to properly evaluate them. The HHP-8's terrible dispatch reliability is because a different builder built them and has not provided proper support and delays in acquiring replacement parts.
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