Wisconsin Hiawatha (Service Talgos Upgrades Maintenance)

Surprise! Wisconsin is purchasing 2 Talgo trainsets for the Hiawatha service.

from WisDOT:

Wisconsin will purchase two, 14-car train sets for $47 million. The agreement provides an option to buy two additional train sets if the state is successful in securing federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for the extension of passenger rail service from Milwaukee to Madison.

No date is mentioned for delivery of the new trainsets.

I thought the talgos weren't FRA compliant?

CarterB wrote:I thought the talgos weren't FRA compliant?

AFAIK the talgo's on the cascades are not fra compliant, but they have a special waiver. The newer talgo's may be FRA compliant.

The current Cascades trainsets are not FRA compliant, but the Series VIII cars are compliant. I think this is all about first mover advantage, attempting to get the assembly facilities in Wisconsin for subsequent orders. I'm also curious as to how much this will reduce Wisconsin's subsidy for the Hiawathas, since they shouldn't face an equipment charge from Amtrak after the new sets are introduced.

Wow, what a surprise. I'm looking forward to riding them.

Yeah, they added the FRA compliance when Talgo America redid their website last year, which caught my eye.

There was a Talgo rep on hand at last year's 100th anniversary of Washington Union Station offering various brochures and such to the public. They even have Talgo sleepers, diners etc. Basically they can make anything out of the basic shell and even offered like three different cafe/dining options from the same series of Talgos. I like the leather seats and of course the tables added in sporadically etc. The Midwest Hub has seemed to always looked toward the Talgo design. But of course, I am not sure what the ride quality would be like on any of the routes.

Looking at the Series VIII specs page

http://www.talgoamerica.com/series8-passengerCars.aspx#

I noticed that the "maximum commercial speed" for these cars is 217mph!

Heh - I'd guess they'll be lucky to achieve 110 mph on the Hiawatha line within the next decade.

http://www.railwayage.com//content/view/1039/121/

the article from railwayage.com

any timeline as to when these will be here in wisconsin?

Wow, that was unexpected but welcome news! I just hope that before Wisconsin commits to buying these, it's prepared to cover any incremental operating costs so Amtrak doesn't haul 'em off to storage in Delaware!

Now the question becomes, will the line be upgraded so these Talgos can see speeds beyond 79 mph?

By "Fully FRA Compliant" I assume they mean "Tier 1 Compliant" meaning that they are allowed to operate up to 125mph in mixed traffic.

I wonder - will Wisconsin be buying locomotives from Talgo as well? At $47 million for just 2 trainsets, I hope so? Or will these be pulled by Genesis/MPI power? I wish somebody... ANYBODY in the US would buy engines that match their coaches. Call me a heretic or whatever, but nothing looks as good as a matched trainset. The Talgo XXI diesel/hydraulic locomotive was quite good looking.

The only trainsets in the US that really look good are the Acelas. The F59PHI/Superliner combo they use in California are close but not a 100% match.

I agree 100%! As I've said before, Amtrak only has two types of trains that really look great - the Acela and the Rohr Turboliner, the latter of course no longer being in service. The Surfliners aren't bad looking.

I do think that P42's will look better pulling the Talgo cars than the F59's do, though!

According to one of the articles, these trainsets will be pulled by "existing" locomotives.

The assembly plant and its accompanying jobs and taxes have to be the key to this deal. The Chicago-Milwaukee line is (mostly) about as straight as any route on the Amtrak system, so the Talgo's speed advantage on curves won't offer much of an advantage over conventional equipment on a line where good ol' Amfleet could do 100+ mph if the track conditions permitted.

i guess Marty will be serving up Tapas .

If Anything , these showfra specs can be met with a reasonable weight car . 17 tons per axle , 34 tons percar ???