More cracks discovered on Acela trains

By Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff, 8/21/2002

Amtrak's desperate quest to repair its partially sidelined fleet of high-speed Acela Express trains hit another snag yesterday. Inspectors discovered hairline cracks on stainless steel beams beneath cars in four trains previously cleared for travel, officials said.

The discovery forced officials to pull the four trains from service, leaving just five of 18 Acela Express trains running. Amtrak had hoped to have the service - which connects Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. - fully restored by the end of the week.

Amtrak and the trains' manufacturers, Bombardier Transportation, have been working frenetically to seal much larger cracks in the shock absorber assemblies of Acela Express's 36 locomotives, which keep them from swaying at high speeds.

Amtrak officials twice last week halted the entire Acela Express schedule to deal with the problem, which could have led to derailments, officials have acknowledged. Acela trains travel up to 150 miles per hour.

The service began in December 2000 - after several delays related in part to equipment problems, such as premature wheel wear - but has quickly established itself as a popular way for business travelers to go between Boston and New York.

Bill Schulz, an Amtrak spokesman, said the railroad does not know when Acela's full schedule will resume. Amtrak expects to offer four high-speed train departures from Boston today: 5:15 a.m., 6:15 a.m., 1:15 p.m., and 4:15 p.m.

''Obviously, the hairline cracks are of a sufficiently lesser concern than the larger ones found earlier,'' Schulz said. ''We don't think new cracks are appearing, but instead, that more rigorous analysis is going on ... We're taking these measures with an abundance of caution in mind, and we think that's the right approach.''

According to Lecia Stewart, Bombardier's vice president for high-speed rail for North America, the new cracks were discovered on small sections of 80-foot metal sills that connect the train car body to the shock-absorbing brackets that had showed cracks previously in certain Acela cars. Inspectors found the cracks where the brackets meet the sills, using a painstaking procedure in which they spray dye that can reveal stress cracks.

Neither Amtrak nor Bombardier officials could say whether locomotives in the four trains removed from service yesterday had also exhibited the larger cracks. Each set of cars includes two locomotives, one on each end, and the set operates as a single unit.

Schulz and Stewart said it was highly improbable that the cracks were new and that they had probably gone undetected because of their minuteness.

''This is all part of the same issue,'' Stewart said. ''We may continue to see manifestations of this.''

To repair the sills, workers are using the same process they were already employing on the shock absorber cracks, Stewart said: welding the cracks closed and then grinding down the weld to make it flush.

Rail industry specialists and riders yesterday wondered what impact the latest problem would have on the financially strapped railroad and for riders who no longer can rely on printed schedules.

Scott Leonard, assistant director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, said there is a bright side: The timing of the equipment trouble has been fortuitous. August is traditionally one of the lightest travel periods for most business travelers, who fill most of the 304 seats on each train of Amtrak's premier rail service.

Still, Leonard said, if the problems aren't fixed soon, the post-Labor Day travelers could abandon Amtrak for airline shuttles, which have mounted aggressive advertising campaigns to attract Acela customers.

''I think it's very necessary that they solve this problem quickly,'' Leonard said. ''I think this will erode confidence in some people's minds, and the sad part is, they [Amtrak] don't deserve it. Safety inspections are there for a purpose, to anticipate problems before they become serious enough to harm somebody. ''

Because the cracks have not resulted in any injuries and appear to be isolated to a particular manufacturing problem, the trouble facing Acela Express probably will not affect campaigns in other regions to establish high-speed rail corridors, some observers said.

Mark Dysart, president of the High Speed Ground Transportation Association, a Washington-based advocacy organization, said the Acela problem affects Amtrak's bottom line, and not rail travel in general.

''This will certainly raise some eyebrows and discourage some people, but I don't think people will look back at August of 2002 as a watershed moment in the history of American high-speed rail,'' Dysart said. ''I hardly think this is fatal.''

For Amtrak, which is fighting for survival before a skeptical Congress, the Acela situation could very well be fatal if not solved soon. The service, which offers first-class and business-class seats only, is one of Amtrak's only true money-makers, even though the corridor on which it runs is in dire need of major capital investment on electrical systems and tunnels.

Amtrak spent more than $1 billion to upgrade the Northeast corridor in advance of the Acela Express debut, but much work remains.

The crumbling corridor has badly eroded the on-time performance of Acela Express service in recent months and may have contributed to the train's recent problems by placing significant stress on the shock assemblies.

Bombardier and its partner, Alstom Ltd. of France, have filed a $250 million lawsuit against Amtrak, accusing the railroad of dragging its feet on hundreds of last-minute design changes that cost the consortium time and money.

Stewart said Bombardier officials are working with Amtrak to resolve the current crisis and restore Acela Express service ''as quickly and as prudently as possible,'' despite their legal dispute.

This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 8/21/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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