Amtrak, New York will test 125-mph turbo train - New York State to use grant from Federal Railroad Administration to upgrade service between Albany and New York City - Brief Article

Railway Age, Oct, 1993

Using a $3 million Federal Railroad Administration grant, New York State hopes to upgrade its existing 110-mph Albany-New York City rail corridor to 125 mph.

The grant will help pay the cost of retrofitting an Amtrak RTL turbine-powered trainset with two Turbomeca Engine Corp. TM-1600 RI (Makila TI) turbine engines. The project also calls for upgrading warning systems at several grade crossings to provide a test bed for demonstrating sustained speeds of 125 mph.

Turbomeca, which is based in Grand Prairie, Tex., says the TM-1600 has higher efficiency, an improved modular design to reduce maintenance costs, and a &agnostic system that provides greater reliability.

Morrison Knudsen will perform the inspection and system integration work at Hornell, N.Y. Amtrak will modernize the train's interior.

As Turbomeca sees it, "This effort will result in the first high speed train that can operate outside of electrified territory at speeds of 125 mph and will be the key element to incrementally upgrading high speed rail corridors throughout the country."

"Amtrak is setting the nation's standard for high-speed rail equipment development, much as it is setting the standard for upgrading rail lines to permit high speed operations," said Dennis Nichols, president and CEO of Turbomeca. "The turbo-train offers an extremely attractive option for providing economical, environmentally-compatible, high speed surface transportation."

Donald Baker, director of the New York DOT's Policy and Program Bureau, says the test train is expected to be ready by the fall of 1994. A national tour is possible after the New York tests are completed.