Amtrak’s Growing Pains with Siemens Locomotives

I see that the cooperation between Amtrak and Siemens has been slowly declining since 2022. Hardly any major new contracts are being awarded to Siemens. Does anyone know if Amtrak has found a new partner? And if so, what is the reason for the change?

Siemens still has to build the ICT fleet, plus any other Chargers that are left from their list. As far as I know Amtrak hasn't contracted anything else with anyone. Their next item of business will be a new LD fleet to replace the Superliners, but I don't know if that's even been solicited yet.

The Superliner replacement RFP was submitted in December 2023 to "qualified bidders" who have not been publicly identified, and award should be sometime this year. Siemens' backlog of work for Amtrak currently extends to something like 2032, and Siemens is building a second factory in NC to keep up with anticipated demand for their products.

The reason you don't see a major contract to Siemens since 2022 is that Amtrak hasn't awarded any major rolling stock projects to anyone since it awarded the Airo contract to Siemens (no less, the only rolling stock purchase Amtrak announced in 2023 was an exercise of options for 10 additional train sets on the ICT/Airo contract with Siemens).

I hope NS stops being stubborn about the signal thing (NS's current signals on the Pittsburg line aren't compatible to the ALC's). I see them all the time in Penn coach but am yearning for them to run the pennsylvanian...

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:12 pm You've definitely confused the MP36's with the F40PH's. As Tadman said, the MP36's have a standalone generator, and the EMD's are tied to the prime mover. Given the amount of time they spend in motion vs. stopped to provide HEP, it's probably a wash on the fuel savings.

As delivered, Metra's MP36s used inverters, but as they've been overhauled, they've been converted to separate diesel generators (like the MBTA units). They idle a lot quieter now, and it wouldn't surprise me if they had issues with excessive vibration when the inverters were used - they really rumbled in the fast-idle mode when producing HEP.

Did METRA keep the inverters as a back up in case of diesel generator failure?

MeinSebastian wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2024 12:42 am I see that the cooperation between Amtrak and Siemens has been slowly declining since 2022. Hardly any major new contracts are being awarded to Siemens. Does anyone know if Amtrak has found a new partner? And if so, what is the reason for the change?

Every few years Amtrak decides their mistakes are the fault of their suppliers and cleans house. Pretty soon they will be buying train cars from Mars or Uranus. You could write a book about the equipment malfeasances at Amtrak. It's a culture of failure.