Passenger Trains > New York quits Turboliner contract

The state of New York has agreed to pay Super Steel Schenectady, Inc. $5.5 million to kill a project to rebuild seven Turboliner trains that were to serve on a high-speed rail corridor between New York City and Albany.

http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df/df06062005.shtml

Which makes me wonder, what becomes of the three completed trains (and the fourth trainset, which was reportedly 90% complete)? Surely they won't just throw away equipment worth tens of millions of dollars!

Amtrak claims those completed trainsets belong to them, not the State, and that therefore it's none of the State's business what happens to them.

That's why they are sitting in the sun in Delaware, where Amtrak took them to get them out of the state and out of reach of whatever the state legislature and courts might do.

Are they literally sitting outside, exposed to the elements? If so, I hope New York pursues legal action for mistreatment of state owned equipment!

State owned? Sez who?

I don't recall seeing these trainsets "outside" in the Wilmington (Bear) shops when I passed by a month or two ago. Course I am not sure that they also have the storage space there, so I could have missed them. They could cover them with a tarp or something if needed, so to not expose them to the elements.

Amtrak should have let Super Steel get these three trainsets to an operating state (fixing the A/C that was the main problem from what I heard), and just stick a Genesis unit upfront to tow them between NYP and Albany (as they did before taking them to Super Steel). Would free up the precious Amfleets now needed for sidelined Acela Express trainsets.
Not a fan of seeing somewhat operable trainsets sidelined.

I traveled to Vermont on the Vermonter at least four times without any any circulation in the car. We all survived. Not ideal, but it worked - for a 8 hour journey! Turboliners only have a 2.5 hour journey. Course with the summer heat upon us, a little more difficult to deal with. Then there was an Acela Express experience with no A/C in the coaches - in the dead of summer with 90 degree weather. That was a fun ride! Amtrak got a nice letter from me on that one!

Towing a Turbo including the two powerplants and gearboxes is like towing a dead locomotive around all the time, not even Amtrak is that desperate.

The turbines aren't that heavy. Amtrak hauls around more dead weight than that on plenty of other trains! But it would be stupid not to use the Turboliners under their own power anyway, as long as they work.

The lone "RTL II" trainset was indeed hauled by a P32AC-DM during its last days of revenue service. I guess the turbines must've failed. I'm not sure what prompted the removal of the train from service altogether, given that it apparently worked okay as a set of coaches pulled by a P32.

only one turbine failed, the set was finaly removed from service as it was due for delivery at Supersteel.