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Bad brakes force Amtrak to cancel Acela
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-16 11:10
The Acela Express, Amtrak's much-ballyhooed hope for high-speed train travel,
was shut down indefinitely Friday because of brake problems, leaving thousands
of travelers scrambling for other transportation.
The beleaguered rail service pressed slower trains into use along the
Northeast corridor between Washington, New York and Boston.
All Acela service will be suspended at least through next Wednesday and most
is likely to be shut down for much longer because of newly discovered cracks in
disc brakes, said Amtrak chief operating officer Bill Crosbie.
"We're very early into this," said Crosbie, estimating it was likely to take
more than two months to do all the repairs, depending on the availability of
replacement parts.
Millimeter-sized cracks were found in 300 of the Acela fleet's 1,440 disc
brake rotors.
Amtrak said the extra trains would not be able to compensate for all the lost
Acela seats. People with reservations who cannot get a ticket on another train —
or don't want one — are entitled to a refund, the company said.
Amtrak normally runs 15 Acela weekday roundtrips between New York and
Washington and 11 between New York and Boston. Acela accounts for about 20
percent of Amtrak's Boston-New York-Washington weekday service, some 9,000
passengers. On Friday's that's usually about 10,000.
The cracked brakes come at a bad time for Amtrak. A Senate committee will
debate next week whether to end the rail service's federal subsidy — as the Bush
administration has recommended — and radically reshape train travel in the
United States.
"We're always under political pressure," said Amtrak CEO David Gunn. "I don't
think that this will be a factor per se."
When Acela service was launched Dec. 11, 2000, the trains were billed as the
faster, brighter future of Amtrak. Running only in the Northeast corridor, the
trains can reach speeds of 150 mph and feature amenities such as conference
tables in passenger cars, pub-style cafe cars with expanded menus and three
audio music channels with headphone outlets at each seat.
The manufacturer, Bombardier Inc., had no immediate explanation for the
cracks found on the steel spokes of disc brakes on most coaches.
"We want to get them up and running as soon as possible, but until we really
understand the issue fully that's going to be an open question," said Bombardier
spokesman David Slack.
The cracks were discovered during routine inspections, and no brake failures
or other safety problems had occurred, Amtrak said.
That was little comfort to stranded business travelers and those who had made
weekend plans.
Standing in line at New York's Penn Station, accountant Linda Priebe feared
she wouldn't make it home to Baltimore Friday.
"If they can't give me a ticket to go in a couple of hours, I'm going back to
the hotel," she said.
Art curator Stanley Babcock wasn't ready to give up.
He said he was ready to ride sitting on the floor. "Otherwise all my hotel
and restaurant plans will be ruined."
Most other Amtrak service was scheduled to operate normally, but the company
added four more regional trains Friday to try to handle the displaced
passengers.
"It's going to be a challenge for us because we have limited additional
equipment," said spokesman Cliff Black.
Lawmakers already upset over the Bush administration's plans to end most
funding for Amtrak argued the incident shows Amtrak needs more help, not less.
"When Amtrak is terribly underfunded and has to operate on a shoestring
budget, these kinds of things will keep happening, which will really disrupt
people's lives and our economy," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting
record), D-N.Y.
The White House seeks to radically reshape what Transportation Secretary
Norman Y. Mineta had called "a dying railroad company."
A day before the Acela cancellation, the administration sent Congress a plan
to reshape Amtrak as a private operator focused on running trains, not
maintaining tracks or stations.
President Bush proposed in his 2006 budget eliminating Amtrak's operating
subsidy. If the railroad ceased operating, the administration has offered to set
aside $360 million to run trains along the Northeast Corridor. The current
budget gives Amtrak some $1.2 billion in operating subsidies and capital
investment.
Acela Express service also was halted in August 2002 after inspectors
discovered cracks on a bracket holding a shock-absorbing assembly to one Acela
Express locomotive. Additional cracks were later found around the assemblies of
other locomotives.
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