Two weeks ago ,I wrote about how Eurostar, the company responsible for running much of the Channel's rail traffic between England and France, planned to invest a sizable sum for the purchase of several high speed electric trains from the German engineering firm Siemens. While the announcement came as a bit of a shock for certain French officials, many others rejoiced in the news that Eurostar was planning on bolstering their green transportation portfolio. In a similar announcement, Amtrak has stated that they are now planning on commissioning several electric trains from Siemens in order to begin overhauling their own fleet.Amtrak, the largest intercity passenger rail company in the United States, has been operating under government control since it was founded in the early 1970s with little interest in green transportation. However, Amtrak officials announced at the beginning of the month that they were planning on purchasing seventy brand new electric locomotives from Siemens AG for $466 million. The particular locomotive that Amtrak is planning on investing their money in is the Amtrak Cities Sprinter ACS-64. According to Amtrak, the company is planning on operating the new locomotives exclusively on their Northeastern lines where they will be phasing out previous locomotives that are nearly twenty or thirty years old.
The Amtrak Cities Sprinter ACS-64, while by no means as fast as other electric rails found throughout the world, will still be among the fastest of Amtrak's trains. According to Amtrak officials, they are planning on running the new locomotives as speeds 110 to 125 miles per hour depending on the particular line the locomotive will be running on. For example, the trains traveling along the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C. and Boston will be running at approximately 125 miles per hour on average.
Although the purchase of these new trains is being hailed as an excellent move by Amtrak into green transportation, they are also being thanked for the jobs they intend to bring while this contract is completed. According to Congresswoman Doris Matsui of Sacramento, California, Amtrak was urged by her office to choose Siemens for the contract due to the rather large plant the company has in Sacramento. The contract is expected to bring in nearly 250 new jobs to the Siemens plant on top of the 700 employees who are already working there. The Congresswoman also believes that this contract could further help develop Sacramento's clean technology portfolio, a goal she has had since she was elected into office in 2005.
Considering the fact that the rest of the world has been converting to high speed electric trains for some time now, it is good to see the United States beginning to upgrade their systems in order to increase the nation's green transportation numbers. While we may be far from developing rails that see as much use as those in Europe or China, for example, it would be nice to see if developments like this could help spread support for rail in the United States.