Nasadowsk wrote:I think the taxpayers shouldn't be giving Amtrak money for new equipment if they can't maintain their existing stuff. There's no reason a locomotive should be worn to the point of replacement in 10 years. Other than poor maintenance or buying lousy equipment in the first place. Neither are excusable, and I find it hard to believe GE got to where they are buy building a bad locomotive...
I completely agree with you. All locomotives should be built to last 30 years before replacing. If Amtrak can't achieve 30 years, maybe Amtrak should be looking at hiring new personnel to maintain their trains.
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... gyPlan.pdf
Read page 24 of the attached pdf again.
Useful Life is a generic and somewhat arbitrary age based definition of
30 years for locomotives and 40 years for passenger cars.
Commercial Life is a combination of a number of factors. The main elements are as
follows:
* Maintainability – the condition of the equipment, the ability to support the components on the vehicle based on obsolescence, the cost in manpower, support infrastructure and parts consumption necessary to maintain the equipment, the reliability experienced in service with its associated impact on service delivery.
* Availability – the number of vehicles available to support the demand requirement.
* Technical capability – ability to meet the requirements of the service.
* Customer acceptance – the willingness of customers to pay to ride the vehicle and the impact on ridership or revenue that can be achieved by changing to a different type of vehicle.
* Capital availability – the capability of the organization to fund the capital investment required to provide replacement equipment
Single Level Coaches – 30 years
Bi-Level Coaches – 30 years
Tier I Trainsets – 25 years
Tier II Trainsets – 20 years
Electric Locomotives – 25 years
Diesel Locomotives – 20 years
I can't believe the Commercial Life of a locomotive is two-thirds it's Useful Life, but that's what this study is recommending. Or that Tier II trainsets Commercial Life is half their Useful Life.