Budd Amfleet I Replacement Discussion

[east point]

The RFP for car delivery needs to be very specific.
1. Change orders both Amtrak and builder
2.Vendor requirements
3. Work stoppages
4. guarantee builder will hire enough workers
5. Penalties for late delivery and late specs from Amtrak.
6. Transparency in contract terms and requirements
7. Open monthly reports
9. Reliability penalties
10. Not necessary lowest builder but reliability to meet other contracts considered.
11.. More from other posters ?
12. problems with deliveries from other countries due to trade war hold ups. Example UP's delivery of rail from Japan.

[mtuandrew]

east point: indemnification of Amtrak in case of international trade wars interfering with delivery?

[Ridgefielder]

Not sure this would be an issue given that the cars would be constructed in the US.

[east point]

correct but what about parts that are only made outside USA ?

[mtuandrew]

Also any currency fluctuations such as might result from a trade war; ie Amtrak wouldn’t have to pay more if the yuan (euro, yen, Canadian dollar, whatever) becomes stronger against the USD.

[DutchRailnut]

Amtrak put out a RFP (request for proposal) to take first step in Amfleet 1 replacement including cab cars .

[John_Perkowski]

Here is the link to the proposal itself

[dgvrengineer]

Guess they decided not to go the DMU route. I think more flexibility with separate cars and cab cars won out over fixed DMU sets.

[DutchRailnut]

DMU's were never contemplated for NEC .

[dgvrengineer]

Guess I was just thinking of New Haven - Springfield and they use Amfleet 1 in other corridors too.

[Traingeek3629]

This is good; Amtrak's 2 car shuttles on the Hartford Line are frequently over capacity and customers are left on the platform.

[Backshophoss]

This becomes a "slam dunk" for Siemens,BBD is not wanted CRRC is BARRED by the congress critters,CAF not interested!

[Greg Moore]

My only concern is if this becomes strictly a 1:1 replacement.

Hopefully when the money gets budgeted, they end up doing an order of like 125/year for a minimum of 5 years and more like 6 years.

As I've said before too, my guess is they'll probably retire at a slightly slower than 1:1 ratio for awhile. i.e. probably for every 100 they get, retire the worst 50 or so.

But in any case, Hope the money is found and this happens... soon.

[mtuandrew]

Noticed it’s “75 train sets or the equivalent number of cars” in the press release. I dunno, I suppose Alstom could bid with a non-tilting set of Avelia cars?

[Train60]

Press release for RFP
https://media.amtrak.com/2019/01/amtrak-seeks-new-passenger-equipment-for-northeast-regional-and-state-corridor-service/