By Esther Fung
Amtrak will probably have to idle some of the new trains it is rolling out because the railroad's maintenance facilities won't be upgraded in time, federal inspectors found.
The misstep means Amtrak, which has been running budget deficits, will lose millions of dollars in revenue that it was expecting from the new, larger trains as more start running next year, Amtrak inspectors said Monday.
It is the latest snafu to strike the multibillion-dollar upgrade, after the launch of the new Acela train fleet faced years of delays due to design and production complications. Also, doors didn't open on some NextGen Acela trains that were recently launched.
"Facility planning has lagged behind its fleet planning by about 15 years even though the two efforts are closely interconnected," Amtrak's Office of Inspector General said in a report.
"Some facilities will not be ready in time to service the company's new trains, which could hinder its ability to fully operate the new equipment."
Amtrak established a rail-yards and facilities team and has made significant progress advancing its facilities portfolio, a spokesman said.
The railway recently issued an update of its strategic fleet and facilities plan that "presents an action-oriented, timeline-driven strategy for new and upgraded maintenance facilities to support the introduction of new trains," the spokesman added.
Amtrak is acquiring three major fleets of trains -- the NextGen Acela, Airo and Long Distance -- for around $8 billion from manufacturers including Alstom and Siemens. To service the new trains, Amtrak is upgrading its maintenance facilities for around $4 billion.
The new trains require upgraded maintenance pits, high-level platforms and other improvements to be maintained, reduce trip times and increase service frequencies, the report said.
At least five Amtrak facilities in Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Rensselaer, N.Y., are currently undergoing construction upgrades needed to repair, inspect and maintain the new trains.
Amtrak launched eight NextGen Acela trains since August, and it will be rolling out a total of 28 NextGen Acela trains through 2027. The Airo train sets are scheduled to begin service in 2026 and the long distance fleet in the early 2030s.
The inspectors' report, citing Amtrak officials and documents, said Amtrak can operate the first 24 of 28 NextGen Acela train sets and the first 12 of 83 Airo train sets without additional facilities modifications.
The report blamed the upgrade delays on a number of oversights, including failure to develop a plan for managing all of its facilities projects, which are instead proceeding separately.
The railroad also didn't have schedules for making digital technology upgrades or plans for managing the workforce at facilities.
In addition, it didn't assign design staff to work on upgrades at the Airo maintenance facilities, resulting in design flaws and delays in construction on 21 Airo facilities by 10 to 13 months.
Amtrak said it is working with France-based Alstom and its vendor to make adjustments to NextGen Acela's train doors during off-peak hours to ensure there is no impact to service.
Write to Esther Fung at esther.fung@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 22, 2025 18:56 ET (23:56 GMT)
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