Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 29, 1993 TAG: 9301290219
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM BELDEN KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: ABOARD THE X2000 LENGTH: Medium
COMMUTING AT FULL TILT WITH AMTRAK
THE FUTURE is now, and Amtrak is testing high-speed trains that lean into the curves.
Amtrak next week will give U.S. rail travelers their first taste of the high-speed trains of the future.
The silver, blue and gray train, leased by Amtrak from Swedish State Railways for a year, will start carrying paying passengers at noon Monday, running as Metroliner train 112 between Washington and New York.
The tilting train, which Amtrak plans to run at a top speed of 135 mph over portions of its Northeast corridor line, will operate until May 10 as one of the various all-reserved Metroliners. Most of the trains will follow a normal Amtrak schedule, stopping in Philadelphia; Baltimore; Wilmington, Del.; and Newark, N.J. Some also will start or end in New Haven, Conn.
Before it goes home to Sweden in the fall, the X2000 may also be demonstrated in other parts of the country, including from New Haven to Boston and between cities that have expressed interest in developing high-speed rail lines - New York City and Albany, N.Y.; Chicago and Detroit; Milwaukee and St. Louis; Miami and Tampa; Los Angeles and San Diego; Portland, Ore., and Seattle; and Charlotte, N.C., and Richmond.
"Technically, the train has exceeded all our expectations," Robert Gall, Amtrak's vice president for sales and marketing, said aboard the train.
The X2000 is one of several high-speed European rail technologies Amtrak says it will evaluate before writing specifications in orders for about 26 high-speed trains, designed to run in the Boston-Washington corridor. One of Germany's high-speed ICE trains is expected to arrive in June as part of the study, Gall said.
Amtrak wants the trains delivered in about 1997, when it also expects to finish outfitting the Boston-New Haven portion of the route with electric power. The section from New Haven to Washington already is electrified.
Unique to the X2000 is the ability of its wheels to be flexible as it takes curves and its cars to tilt into each curve.
The flexible-wheel mechanism enables the train to dash through a curve 40 percent faster than a conventional train. The tilting cars deliver a smoother ride, compensating for centrifugal force.