NextGen Bi-Level build is put on hold

[Jeff Smith]

CCRail.com

I know this is old news. Have any of their other cars in use encountered issues?

That development was the revelation two weeks earlier 72 of the 88 new “Next Generation” bi-level passenger cars being built with federal funds for three Midwestern states aren’t being built at all — and, indeed may never be built because their federal funding is likely to expire before most of the cars can be delivered.

Nippon Sharyo U.S.A./Sumitomo, which won the bid to build the new cars in the fall of 2012, admitted the first car shells had failed the 800,000-pound “buff compression test” required by the Association of American Railroads.

Well before the early September test failure, there were increasing signs the NextGen bi-level build was in trouble.

Originally, the first prototype cars were supposed to be rolled out in 2014, with delivery of “pilot cars” to California, Missouri, Illinois and Michigan promised for mid-2015.

[John_Perkowski]

Sometimes, you just take a proven plan and build it again...

[Backshophoss]

For "whatever" internal reasons,Nippon-Sharyo is NO longer the contractor of the Midwest service fleet and the Caltrans 3rd gen Surfliners,
The states involved in the midwest fleet and Caltrans has given the Siemens "Brightline" car design the green light to build in place
of the Superliner/Surfliner car design,with a design mod for low level platforms.
This is due to a FAILED 800,000 lb crush test last year on the prototype car shell,HOW bad the failure was, is still unknown.
Going with the "proven" design of the "Brightline" car design that passed the 800,000 lb crush test protects the federal funding
for both the Midwest Fleet and Caltrans purchases.