NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/rec/railroad/11015

Text File | 1993-01-28 | 7.6 KB | 127 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Daffy Duck)
Subject: X2000 trial service article
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Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 18:28:01 GMT
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The following article appeared in todays Washington Times (January 28, 1993).
It is copyright 1993, News World Communication, and is copied without
permission.

"Leaning closer to implementation, Amtrak gives tilt train a dry run"
By David Field
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

   Amtrak is demonstrating an inclination toward high-speed passenger trains,
the latest of which was unveiled yesterday before it goes in Metroliner service
Monday.
   The train called the X-2000, literally inclines, or tilts, as it goes around
curves.  Its specially designed underbody and wheels allow it to do what other
trains cannot: maintain speed rounding curves while maintaining a smooth ride.
   Normally, trains, like cars, must slow down on curves to resist centrifugal
forces that would otherwise make the ride uncomfortable for passengers.
   Tilt trains are able to travel at speeds up to 155mph.  However Amtrak plans
to run the trains at 125mph, its regular top speed for Metroliners, while it
gauges passenger reaction during the tilt train's three-month trial here.
   "Amtrak passengers will have the opportunity to experience the train
firsthand, and their opinions will assist Amtrak in developing specifications
for its next generation of high-speed passenger trains," Rorbert E. Gall,
Amtrak's vice president for marketing and sales, said yesterday.
   The Washington-New York trip will take the same two hours and 55 minutes as
the Metroliner now takes and will cost the same $90 each day for weekday
travel.
   The X-2000 could be equipped with a diesel-electric motor for use on tracks
that do not have overhead electric power lines, such as those between New Have,
Conn., and Boston.  That's where the real time savings could come.
   The point of the trail is to gain public attention, test public reaction and
possibly gain public funds to buy the trains.
   To judge by the reaction of of invited dignatries, public officials, and
reporters on yesterday morning's X-2000 test run out of Washington, passenger
opinion will be generally positive.
   "This is great," said Vada Manager, press secretary to District Mayor Sharon
Pratt Kelly.  "It will help promote commerce in the Northeast Corridor and
encourage tourism," Mr. Manager said.
   "Nice on curves," said G.A. Chadwick Jr., as he stood behind engineer Anne
Clausen in the cab of the train as it rounded a curve north of Perryville, Md.
   Mr. Chadwick should know.  He's the retired board chairman of the Maryland
Midland Railway Inc., a freight line in Carrol County that also runs excursion
trains for tourists.
   According to Ray Griffin, Amtrak road foreman for engines, the trains
maintain a 125mph speed on curves that now require Metrolines to slow down to
90mph.
   "The ride was so smooth that it passed my 'not test' and 'coffee test,'"
joked Joseph Vranich, a Northern Virginia advocate of high speed rail travel.
   "The note test is simple -- it was easy to write a legible note at 120mph.
The 'coffee test' means I placed a cup on a table and it did not spill going
around the curves," said Mr. Vranich, author of a recent book on high speed
rail, "Supertrains."
   In rail travel, there are tow ways to avoid slowing down for curves:
straighten the track or make the train tilt.
   Most high-speed rail efforts, such as the magnetic levitation train project
under development near Orlando, Fla., or the proposed bullet train in Texas,
require a specialized, generally straight set of tracks, which can't be used by
slower convenetial passenger trains or occasional freights.
   "The beauty of the X-2000 is that it uses the existing track and roadbed,
and so can improve speeds on Amtrak lines as they are now," said Joseph S.
Silien of ABB Traction Inc., the Swedish company that is leasing the tilt train
to Amtrak.
   ABB Traction's parent, Swedish engineering gian Asea Brown Boveri, built the
tilt trains for the Swedish state railroads, which began operating them in
regular service in Septemeber 1990 between Stockholm and Gothenburg, a 284 mile
corridor that is Sweden's counterpart ot the Washington-New York corridor.
   "The tilt train's interiors are equipped with polished wood tables at each
seat, and seats are paired which half facing forward and half backward.  Some
seating areas can be turned into conference rooms by closing a sliding door.
   "These are all things we want to see how people react to," Amtrak
spokeswoman Sue Martin said.
   Amtrak hopes are that the train will be so successful that it can be used on
curvy routes such as the New Haven-Boston  segment of the Northeast Corridor,
where the tracks follow the Connecticut Sound's meandering shoreline.
   Trains have to slow down for these curves and as a result, even though a
train can travel the entire 225 miles between Washington and New York in under
3 hours it takes 2 and one half hours to travel the 160 between Boston and New
Haven.
   Reaction to the X-2000 test, which will last until May 10, will help Amtrak
decide if it can gain congressional backing to spend the $15 million to $20
million that each of 26 X-2000 trains would cost.
   It would take all 26 to cover the Northeast Corridor, according to Lutz W.
Eisner president of ABB Traction Inc, the Elmira Heights, N.Y. based unit of
Asea Brown Boveri.
   "They would be able to use all the trainsets and not have to keep one in
reserve because of reliablilty rates are as high as they have been," Mr. Eisner
said.  "In Sweden, the state railroad experienced a total of seven minutes of
mechanical delays in 1.5 million miles.
   "In fact, the train we are riding on now is a reserve unit they don't need,"
he said as the X-2000 rolled on.
   If funds were appropriated or otherwise raised, tilt trains would start to
enter service between 1995 and 1996 and passengers would see X-2000s operating
as Metroliners by 1997, Mr. Eisner said.
   He added that although the X-2000 does not require that new tracks be built,
advanced (and often expensive) signaling systems must be in place to allow the
trains to run at their highest speed.
   One change almost certain to be made if Amtrak buys the X-2000 is the horn.
The warning signal now is a high pitched and somewhat delicate one, designed,
according to ABB Product Manager Per-Erik Ohlson, by a saxaphone player.  The
sound effect now, Mr. Ohlson said, "is hardly a lonesome whistle."
   Amtrak is also investigating another high speed-rail technology, the German
Inter-City Express, or ICE.
   The carrier's board of directors yesterday voted to give the line permission
to borrow an ICE train from builder Siemens AG for testing, Mrs. Martin, the
Amtrak spokeswoman said.
   "We believe the ICE technolgy is not appropriate for the Northeast Corridor
because ICE really requires a dedicated roadbed," Mr. Eisner said.
   Amtrak, officialy the National Railroad Passenger Corp., now carried about
42% of all passengers using public transit between Washington and New York.

--
Dharm Guruswamy         Junior Urban Studies & Planning Major
University of Maryland at College Park - A Flagship Institution
My views are only my own
[e-mail]            [e-mail]