Amtrak is taking a major step towards improving overnight, cross-country train travel by issuing a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) to railcar manufacturers to begin the replacement of Amtrak’s current Long Distance fleet.
This once-in-a-generation, multi-billion-dollar procurement will start reequipping a fleet that provides vital train service from coast to coast and is made possible through funding provided by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Congress.
This new fleet will allow Amtrak to introduce an updated product that meets current and future market expectations, improves customer experience, reimagines onboard accessibility and mobility, improves operational efficiency, and bolsters sustainability, resiliency, and ridership.
This step follows a formal Request for Information (RFI) issued in December 2022—sent to potential railcar builders defining and describing the scope of replacing the Long Distance fleet. Multiple suppliers responded to the RFI in early 2023, which helped to shape this RFP.
The RFP outlines requirements to improve core elements of Long Distance service, including coach seating, private rooms, food service, enhanced accessibility, and route experience. Following vendor selection, critical steps of final design, development and production are expected to occur over the next several years. Fleet deliveries are projected to begin in the early 2030s.
The Long Distance fleet replacement RFP is one of several Amtrak investments aimed at upgrading and enhancing the Long Distance customer experience—including refreshing passenger car interiors, restoring stored equipment to active service and improving stations, onboard amenities, sales and support channels. These recent highlights specifically include:
- Purchasing 125 ALC-42 Long Distance locomotives, with more than three dozen already in service. Made in the U.S., these locomotives are cleaner, faster, more fuel efficient and more environmentally friendly than their predecessors.
- Investing $28 million for interior upgrades to 400 bi-level Superliner and 49 Viewliner cars. Nearly 200 Superliner cars have been refreshed and are now in revenue service and the Viewliner refresh will begin in 2024.
- Restoring and repairing 63 idled railcars by the end of 2024.
Amtrak Long Distance ridership grew by more than 12% across the network in FY23 (Oct. 2022-Sept. 2023), serving nearly 3.9 million customer trips.
-via Press Release
