The president of a Tipton company says media reports, published in many newspapers across the country concerning inspections on Amtrak’s Acela Express service, are wrong.
Amtrak pulled its entire 20-train Acela fleet out of service April 15 after finding millimeter-sized cracks in 317 of its high-speed rail fleet’s 1,440 disc brake rotors. Each Acela train has 72 brakes.
The new report implied that Amtrak had not been informed of cracks discovered by Blair County’s ORX, the company which assembled the wheel sets for the Acela trains. ORX also maintains the Acela’s wheel sets.
“The AP story is wrong,” ORX president Glenn Brandmarte told The Daily Herald.
The AP story indicated that cracks were detected as long as three years ago, but the railroad was not notified.
Brandmarte said while his company did assembly the wheel sets, they were manufactured by other companies. The Acela trains are made by Montreal-based Bombardier and Alstom SA of France.
Brandmarte did say his company did find one single crack a couple of years ago, and that information was passed up the line. ORX is in reality a contractor working for the two companies which built the trains and have a contract with Amtrak to maintain the trains.
“We are hired only to maintain the wheel sets,” said Brandmarte. “We do not work for Amtrak. While I don’t think we are being targeted, the AP story is just wrong. The parts with the cracks were not manufactured here. We did not do anything wrong.”
The cause of the cracks remains under investigation and Amtrak plans to bring the Acela back into service gradually starting this summer. Meanwhile, Amtrak has substituted slower trains to operate its Washington to Boston trips.
The crack were found on all 20 Acela trains with some discs having two or three cracks.
Amtrak is saying that the Acela problem is costing the railroad more than $1 million a week in net losses.
Acela Express began operating in December 2000 and was billed as Amtrak’s answer to the high-speed train. The trains run only along the Northeast Corridor, with top speeds of 150 mph.
“Nobody want to talks,” said Brandmarte, “somebody is going to get into a lawsuit.”
