Acela II (Alstom Avelia Liberty): Design, Production, Delivery, Acceptance

Interesting to note that the photo in that article (which first appeared on November 20) was taken a few months ago, based on the tree foliage. The most recent PRIIA 305 minutes indicate the following update, which was current as of October 31:

"On the Acela replacement:

Trainset 1 is together –power car on both ends.
Trainset 2 is being put together for the NEC.
Tilt testing has been completed and has been or will be submitted to the FRA.
Passenger cars are in the final testing and once complete will be submitted to FRA."

Glad to hear that things are moving along quickly - and would not be surprised to see the first trainset headed to Pueblo in the near future (followed shortly by the NEC-bound set). Would be great to see one of these on the new test track at Hornell!

The target is Feburary.

Yet again ... Tip of the hat to whoever is managing the drip drip drip PR on this ....

We are now getting updates almost every 30 days on progress and they are rotating the outlets to spread the coverage around.

Notice also the timing of this story which avoids the holiday period "dead zone" for news. Next story should be out sometime around the second week of January ... Question is who will be writing next time?

I'm curious to see if the final product has the aerodynamic cladding to smooth the transition between the tilt coaches and non-tilt, slab sided locomotives, but unfortunately I'm guessing the later renderings indicate that it was deleted from the final design:

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 8:58 pm I'm curious to see if the final product has the aerodynamic cladding to smooth the transition between the tilt coaches and non-tilt, slab sided locomotives, but unfortunately I'm guessing the later renderings indicate that it was deleted from the final design:

If you watch the videos it appears the power cars tilt too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLAx6pND1dg

I believe the original concept video either showed a plan that was later changed or was simply inaccurate, but I'm pretty sure the locomotives are straight up next-gen TGV locomotives without tilt.

At 1:07 it looks like the locomotive is tilting; at 1:17 and 2:22 the sides of the locomotive and the coaches seem to match. Then again, at 1:34 it's headed for Harrisburg--are we going to see them in Keystone service? And at 2:10 Portal Bridge never looked better... A nicely done video.

I hate how much we talk about paint but I have to admit the "post-production" livery looks great.

I agree, I don't think the final Amtrak livery was an improvement. Ah well, I think the first gen Acela is a better looking train but hopefully this one will be better where it really counts.

I hope that the paint scheme is good on the Avelia Liberty Acelas. I also and most importantly hope that the Avelia Liberty Acelas work fine and can last a lot longer than the original Acelas.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:15 pm I hope that the paint scheme is good on the Avelia Liberty Acelas. I also and most importantly hope that the Avelia Liberty Acelas work fine and can last a lot longer than the original Acelas.

That may depend on how hard they are run. Once new Hudson tunnels are done and one of the old ones are refurbished more trains will be possible for both Acela-2s and Regionals.

The recent pics in Hornell show blue cars with white window band, which looks a bit like the HST125 versions of the Brit MK3 cars in their first iteration. I'm sure it's coincidence, but perhaps a good omen. The Mk3 is comfy and lasted quite some time, certainly longer than the Mk4.

I sent an inquiry to a railroad publication regarding the tilt system on the new trainsets. As far as they know , the tiltronix tilting system will be used on the power cars.

Isn't the first trainset due to ship out west soon?

mcgrath618 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:17 pm Isn't the first trainset due to ship out west soon?

Yes. About a week ago a P42 and VL diner were spotted enroute to Hornell.