Siemens breaks into the U.S. long-distance passenger rail market

Amtrak, the U.S. passenger rail operator, has finalized an agreement with Siemens for the delivery of 70 Amtrak Cities Sprinter electric locomotives worth round EUR 338 million (US $466 million). By securing this order, Siemens has succeeded in selling its locomotives to the American market for the first time. The U.S. locomotive market recently has shown an average order volume of around €1.5 billion per year. The first vehicles will be delivered in 2013.
The new Cities Sprinter are a part of the extensive fleet renewal program Amtrak is launching for the next 14 years, with a special focus on passenger rail service in the Northeast. With 2,600 rail connections a day, the corridor between Boston and Washington is the most heavily traveled long-distance route in the USA. The modernization program totals US $11 billion. “In the past months rail transportation has stepped into the spotlight of infrastructure improvement projects in America and is strongly supported by the U.S. administration. This order for the Cities Sprinters is our first opportunity to supply a Siemens locomotive to the American locomotive market, the second largest market in the world,” says Hans Jörg Grundmann, CEO of the Siemens Division Mobility. “This order shows that we are capable of offering the right solutions for regional and long-distance passenger rail service in the USA,” adds Grundmann.
“Amtrak is a critical transportation provider in the Northeast and modern locomotives are essential to meet the service reliability expectations of our passengers and for us to handle the growing ridership demand in the coming years,” said Amtrak’s President and CEO Joseph Boardman.
The Cities Sprinter electric locomotive for Amtrak is based on Siemens’ Eurosprinter and Vectron product lines. The locomotives are capable of running on three power supplies including 25 kV, 12.5 kV and 12kV and have an output rating of up to 6.4 MW. Consequently, it reaches a substantially higher performance level than the predecessor models. By operating trains up to 18 cars long and a top speed of 200 km/h, Amtrak will now be able to run trains at closer headways and carry a considerably higher number of passengers on the same route.
Several components have been redesigned to meet U.S. standards and Amtrak’s specifications. The Cities Sprinter locomotives comply with the latest safety and crashworthiness standards of the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The reinforced locomotive body, for instance, has a specially designed crumple zone that absorbs crash energy and ensures controlled deformation in the event of a collision. Another new regulation calls for a safety cage for the driver’s cab, which protects the driver in case of a crash. An anti-climber feature has also been integrated into the design. Apart from safety, special attention has been placed on the ease of maintenance. For example, the traction motors and the wheel sets can be removed independently of each other without lowering the bogie. This means considerable time savings when it comes to replacing these components. Additionally, all other maintenance and servicing tasks have been simplified because components in the machine room are now more readily accessible.
These new locomotives will be manufactured predominantly at the Siemens plant in Sacramento, California. Last year, this facility was vastly expanded under a US$26 million investment. Siemens is currently at the forefront of the American light rail market by providing one of every three light rail vehicles to the market today.
According to UNIFE, the Union of European Railway Industries, the world’s largest network of long-distance railroad lines exists in North America. The locomotive market there is currently regarded as the second biggest after Asia and, in the past, represented an average order volume of €1.5 billion per year. Amtrak is the largest passenger rail operator on the North American continent and also operator of the only high speed line.

Source: Transportweekly