The Amtrak report for budget, business plan lists fleet plans instead of the separate fleet strategy plan of previous years. There has been much debate on why, where, who, & what the reasons for various equipment decisions. For some reason was unable to copy and paste the sections which are on pages 19 - 22. This poster took average age of various equipment divided into average mileage. Of course equipment on the NEC corridor should be lower average miles per day and the LD trains the most but.----- Average mileage per year in thousand miles are ------------
Talgos suspected number is 207 k
Acela ---- 140 k
LD trains Amfleet2 = 188k, heritage = 89k, Viewliner = 181k, Superliners = 189k, auto carriers 173k
SD Amfleet1 = 115k, cab cars 77k, Horizon = 122, surf = 130k, Cal cars = 120k,
LOCOS -----------
AEM7 = 130k. HHP8 = 93k (sort of addresses lower reliability ? )
P-42 = 173k, P40 = 115, P32 = 126, F59 =106, P32DM = 102, California diesels = 103
IMO The low mileage of Heritage is one more nail in their coffins. Compare that to Amfleet2s and Superliners. Also interesting is mileage of LD Diesels compared to LD cars
Interesting numbers.
I find especially interesting the "suspected" Talgo numbers (what does "suspected" mean, anyway?). If accurate, they have the highest utilization of all Amtrak equipment, and yet they have (not counting the Amtrak locomotives used to push/pull them) some of the highest reliability. (At least, they did until the newest batch came along, but that may just be "teething" problems.)
Of course, they also are subject to a very stringent manufacturer's maintenance program.
The Talgos do see a lot of trips per day, but are the numbers that high? They are well maintained, yet that amounts to over 550 miles a day! The corridor is only 467 miles long, and only two trains (one north, one south) travel the whole corridor, taking most of the day to do it. That is all those trainsets do in a day. Of the other three, IIRC, one does a north of Seattle round trip, and the other two do Seattle-Portland round trips.
There are five (now seven) trainsets, operating 12 trains per day, with five F59PHIs. (P42DCs and P40DCs are also common, as five locomotives with five trainsets leaves you with no spares. Sometimes the occasional P32BWH shows up.)
Northwest Thanks for the information. That was why suspected the number was too high. Will look at report later to see if interpreted wrong.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.