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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-11/amtrak-to-start-building-70-electric-locomotives-in-2012-plan.html

Amtrak to Start Building Electric Locomotives This Year

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A passenger walks on the platform to board an Amtrak Acela passenger train at Union Station in Washington. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Amtrak will build the first of 70 planned electric locomotives and 130 long-distance cars this year to update its fleet, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman said.

The U.S. national passenger railroad plans to extend electronic ticketing to all trains this year and improve service in the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, Boardman told reporters on a conference call today.

“I see us as having a great future because we carry more and more people, our revenues are up and we’re going to be able to be more efficient,” Boardman said.

The equipment purchases, under two contracts worth $764 million, “show our commitment to long-distance service,” he said. The U.S. unit of Munich-based Siemens AG (SIE) is building the locomotives and CAF USA, the U.S. unit of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles SA of Beasain, Spain, has the rail-car contract.

Amtrak will do advanced design and engineering this year and start construction in 2013 to increase top speed on a 24- mile segment of track in New Jersey to 160 miles per hour from 135 mph, Boardman said.

That project is being financed by a U.S. grant of $450 million, or $4.5 million per second of reduced travel time in that stretch. Amtrak has said it’s a necessary first step toward increasing speeds elsewhere in the Northeast.

Hudson River Tunnel

The new locomotives will replace ones now operating in the Northeast, starting in 2013, Boardman said. Trains in the Northeast Corridor and between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will be able to boost top speeds to 125 mph from 110 mph, he said.

Amtrak, based in Washington, is “not fearful” of calls by Representative John Mica, the Florida Republican who is chairman of the U.S. House transportation committee, for the private sector to take a lead role in developing bullet-train capability between Washington and Boston, Boardman said.

Congress cut assistance to Amtrak to $1.42 billion this fiscal year from $1.48 billion in fiscal 2011. Amtrak will continue infrastructure improvements after the reduction, Boardman said. The railroad’s budget includes $15 million toward building a second tunnel under the Hudson River to increase the number of Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains serving New York’s Penn Station.

“Uncertainty about federal funding and budget cuts is not new to Amtrak,” Boardman said. “We will not lose sight of the Amtrak our customers expect us to be.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Lisa Caruso in Washington at lcaruso7@bloomberg.net; JoAnne Norton in Washington at jnorton@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net

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Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
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