Revisiting Long-Distance Fleet Plans

By Jim Mathews / President & CEO

Amtrak now expects to select a builder for its bi-level Superliner fleet replacement procurement in 2026, but will also speed plans to ask industry to bid on single-level long-distance equipment replacements as well.

Despite rumors of the Superliner replacement being put “on hold,” your Association can confirm that this procurement remains underway. The supplier selection and contract award date have slipped several times, leading to speculation that the procurement might have to be scrapped. That’s not the case.

What’s happening is a continued iteration of design ideas and scope between Amtrak and the car-builders, trying to work through what is feasible, affordable, and can be built efficiently.

Amtrak tried to “front-load” those kinds of discussions with a detailed request-for-information, or RFI, a few years ago, and the railroad actually based some of its more controversial desires – including elevators for ADA access on bi-level cars – on industry’s own responses in 2023 to what Amtrak asked was possible.

“The RFI question specifically asked how many different car types could be built simultaneously in a manufacturing facility without significantly impacting production,” Amtrak noted in a formal response to a December Inspector General report on the procurement.

“Responses varied: two car builders stated there were no defined limits, one specified the ability to produce up to six car types and one did not provide, a quantified limit/range,” Amtrak said. “This variation highlights the diverse capabilities within the industry providing a more comprehensive and balanced perspective on the responses received. It is crucial to avoid overgeneralizing the capabilities of a single car builder as indicative of the broader industry landscape.”

Nonetheless, when it came time to actually bid on the work, car-builders responding to the RFP balked at the number of car types and some of the more complex features, like the elevators, even though some vendors told Amtrak during the RFI process that they could deliver these features.

Last June Amtrak started amending its requirements in the RFP with an eye toward reducing complexity and making it easier for car builders to come closer to satisfying Amtrak’s desire for more passenger-focused amenities.

The Amtrak IG said Amtrak’s new plan was to ask car-builders for trainsets with perhaps five car types rather than the nine originally envisioned. There was also to be an option to deliver individual cars that could be interoperable with the existing fleet as a bridge to delivering the full trainsets, IG said. The respec will likely lead to slippage in the schedule for delivery of the new equipment – a delay that the aging LD fleet can ill afford. However, Amtrak has publicly targeted a goal of fleet deliveries in "the early 2030s", so it's difficult to precisely calculate how this will affect the railroad's internal timeline.

Amtrak is also developing an RFP for replacement of some single-level LD equipment that should be released to the marketplace later this summer. Procuring single-level long-distance equipment was originally only included in Phase Four of Amtrak’s long-distance fleet replacement plan, slated to happen after the Superliner replacement base order and two rounds of optional orders had been put in motion.