Trains – September 2019

IT’S ONLY IN PIECES NOW — spread
across six buildings at Alstom’s three Hornell, N.Y.,
plants, with additional components yet to arrive from
other U.S. suppliers. The first of 28 Next Generation
Acela trainsets, comprising a $2.4-billion investment,
won’t be assembled as a cohesive unit for months.
However, a tour in mid-June with Alstom and Amtrak
managers reveals equipment poised to build on the
premium Boston-Washington, D.C., travel brand
Amtrak launched in December 2000.
Acela has name recognition and the ability to gener-
ate more revenue per passenger with a better onboard
experience. This is the main reason the new equipment,
based on a fifth-generation French TGV design, won’t
bear Alstom’s “Avelia Liberty” product designation.
“With such a strong brand, we don’t want anyone
saying, ‘Why are you getting rid of Acela?’” says Caro-
line Decker, Amtrak’s vice president, Northeast Corridor
Service Line. “We’ve refreshed the current Acelas; they’re
reliable and well-accepted. But it will be a challenge for
at least the first year and a half transition when we will
be running different sets of equipment under the Acela
brand,” she says. “The bottom line is safety, but there are
a lot of marketing challenges and hurdles to cross before
we see the commercial launch of these trains.”
How different are the next generation Acelas, which
for now Amtrak is calling Acela 21? Start by looking
under the hood — or rather, beneath the power car’s
curvaceous snout. That’s where a bevy of crash energy
management system components are designed to
mitigate collision impacts, as dictated by the Federal
Railroad Administration’s Tier III crashworthiness
standard finalized in November 2018.
“Tier III is really focused on maintaining the occu-
pied volume integrity of the passenger compartment
— where the passengers sit,” explains Scott Sherin,
Alstom’s vice president, marketing and strategy. “The
impact is absorbed by the components in front, and
between the power car and first car vestibule, so the
energy wave moves through the carbody in a way to
ensure that the passengers are not feeling the shock of
that energy.”
Bombardier and Alstom’s original Acela trainsets

had to comply with the FRA’s Tier II standard, requir-

ing carbody frames to withstand 800,000 pounds of

horizontal force with only minimal deformation, “but

the effect of energy transfer to the occupants was never

considered,” Sherin says.

In some ways the new FRA standard is more strin-

gent than those imposed by European and Asian regu-

latory agencies. Even so, the alternative to the buff-

strength requirement makes possible lighter trains,

traveling at higher speeds, drawing less power, and

causing reduced wheel and track wear (see table on

page 47).

Acela 21 incorporates these advantages in part by

utilizing aluminum carbodies supported on articulated

trucks between the permanently coupled cars. The

original Bombardier/Alstom trainsets’ cars each rode

on two trucks. That means that even though the new

version is longer and has more coaches, it has fewer

wheel sets to maintain.

ACELA ARTICULATION

“Since we have articulation permanently coupling

the cars,” Alstom project director Didier Cuadrado says,

“passage between them is easier — even with a wheel-

chair — because they don’t move independently.” The

company’s new Tiltronix active-tilt system, incorporat-

ed into each truck, promises to further smooth ride

quality over less-than-perfect Northeast Corridor track.

It uses software to anticipate how much tilt to impose

given the speed of the train — a marked improvement

upon the original Acela’s active-tilt technology.

None of these advances would have occurred if

there wasn’t a brisk market for high speed trains out-

side of North America, where legacy carbuilders exited

the business because of meager U.S. and Canadian

TrainsMag.com 43

Alstom and Amtrak give

TRAINS first look at Acela

21, set to debut in 2021

Story and photos by Bob Johnston

A look underneath

the power-car

shrouding reveals

the crash energy

management

elements.

Bottom left: Coach

carbodies are made

of aluminum by

Alstom in Italy. The

company got a

waiver from “Buy

America” require-

ments because it

could not find a U.S.

supplier with the

ability to manufacture

an aluminum carbody

of this length.

Bottom right: A

lengthened test

track runs next to

Alstom’s Hornell

factory. Norfolk

Southern’s Southern

Tier ex-Erie main is

in the foreground.