The first batch of Amtrak’s new modern trainsets are officially built and painted and headed to Colorado for testing.
Dozens of Amtrak’s Airo trainsets departed the manufacturing center in Sacramento earlier this week after years of planning and design. Now the trainsets are en route to Pueblo, Colorado, for testing before eventually being unleashed on the Northeast Corridor—the busiest railroad line in North America.
The trainsets were built by German manufacturing conglomerate Siemens, a frequent partner of Amtrak and a major presence in the American railroad industry.
Built on Siemens’ Ventura platform, the Airo trains offer modern upgrades to the train interiors, improved accessibility, and enhanced comfort for a “more consistent travel experience.”
The trains boast panoramic windows for better viewing experience, spacious seats that “prioritize ergonomics” with increased legroom and sturdier tray tables, individual power outlets and USB ports, enhanced 5G enabled Wi-Fi and upgraded food service on each train’s cafe car. They are also capable of reaching speeds of up to 125 miles per hour.
Amtrak has ordered 83 of these Airo trainsets to replace dozens of older trains within its fleet, with expectations for service within the Northeast Corridor by next year.
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Airo trains will be found along several high-traffic routes, including the Northeast Regional line, Empire and Keystone services. Trains will also be deployed in the Pacific Northwest along the Amtrak Cascades route.
Amtrak shared video of the completed trainsets departing the Siemens facility in Sacramento as workers waved them off and wished them well on their journey.
Airo trains aren’t the only upgrades Amtrak has brewing
The nation’s passenger rail system has been promoting its latest accomplishments in railroad modernization. In April, Amtrak announced it planned to order 800 new railcars across its 14 long-distance routes. Earlier this month, Amtrak celebrated a major milestone involving its faster trains to date, the Acela, which have already logged more than 1 million riders in under one year of service.
Senior Amtrak officials participated in a conversation about ongoing upgrade projects in a video that was posted to its website and Youtube page on Thursday, May 28.
“We have over 360 projects, and that alone is creating over $200 billion of investment into the U.S. economy,” said Kuvesh Ayer, Amtrak’s Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer. “We also have investment across the board, starting with new fleet infrastructure, upgrading our stations as well as our bridges and tunnels.”
Ayer said approximately 46,000 jobs are being created “just in the rail sector alone.”
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“All of these investments are really critical to sort of what the mission of Amtrak is, which is to try and connect communities and people—intercity travel that’s trip-time competitive that people want,” said Amtrak’s Senior Director of Government Affairs Mariah Morales. “One of the exciting things that’s happening now is that people cannot wait. So we’re seeing record ridership, record revenue for a system that is still just sort on the precipice of seeing the kind of upgrades we want to see.”
Morales added that Amtrak is trying to get upgrades completed as fast as possible, especially along the Northeast Corridor.
“These folks want to get on the train, and they want to get out of their cars and get off the plane, and we are trying to get equipment and service as fast as we can,” she said.
In addition to new trainsets across Amtrak’s fleet, additional major projects include restoration of the William H. Gray 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, modernization work on the New York East River Tunnel, and replacing the Connecticut River Bridge on the Northeast Corridor.
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