Delays and cost overruns are plaguing the new trains Amtrak is counting on to replacing its aging fleet of semi-high-speed Acela trains, according to a new report from Amtrak’s own inspector general. One of the reasons for the delays is that 34 cars that the manufacturer tried to deliver to Amtrak were returned as defective.
Click image to download a 3.0-MB PDF of this redacted.
How much are the cost overruns? We don’t know because the number was redacted from the report. How long are the delays? At least three years but we don’t know exactly because the number was redacted from the report. The report even redacts the name of the manufacturer, even though it is well known to be Alstom. “Certain information in this report has been redacted due to its sensitive nature,” says the report cover.
The Antiplanner is learning to hate the word redacted. I recently filed a public records request regarding the costs of affordable housing. The response was a form in which all costs were redacted. In fact, just about everything was redacted except for the square footage of the housing project.
I can understand keeping personal information or proprietary corporate data private. But government costs are neither: taxpayers are being asked to pay the costs of affordable housing/Amtrak trains and those taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going and how effectively it is being spent. Even if Amtrak is considered a private company, which it is not, the funds used to buy the new trains came from a loan from the Department of Transportation — a loan that, if it is ever repaid, will be out of appropriations because, despite Amtrak’s claims, the Acela does not make a profit.
What’s next? Are transit agencies going to redact their cost overruns? Will little-used airports redact the amount of money they use to subsidize airlines? Will transportation departments redact the costs of their road diet programs? Such behavior is commonplace in China, but all of this information should be open to the public in the United States.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7zpgv/a-computer-model-is-causing-years-of-delays-for-amtraks-new-high-speed-trains-scathing-audit-finds
The flagship Acela fleet may have to cut service because Amtrak is running out of spare parts and using unsupported software on critical components while the new fleet is nowhere close to entering service.
I once thought that rail and transit operators were only good at building new things, but terrible at operating them. Money for new stuff always seemed to be available to them and they had limitless places to insert these funds. I could not be more wrong.
There is a myriad of off-the-shelf high-speed rail vehicles in daily service and available around the world. Why is it that our so-called high-speed trains come bracketed by King Tiger tank-style power units?
Why must we re-re-re-re-reinvent the wheel every time Amtrak needs to replace its old railcars? It’s ridiculously expensive, yet they do it every time.
This IG report indicates that Amtrak simply cannot be trusted with public funds for equipment. Redactions in IG reports like this should be illegal. Would a FOIA request get we Plebes the complete report?