Talgos may be in America's future

by Jim Repass
TRA Advisor
Founder of National Corridors Initiative

Trains magazine’s Bob Johnston reports Talgo America is proposing to build 20 fast trains for the U.S.

Passenger train builders are confronting a U.S. market in a state of suspended animation, according to the magazine.

The Bush administration and Amtrak want states to pick up the full operating losses of passenger trains, and federal lawmakers are gearing up for surface transportation’s reauthorization – but there is no guarantee the new legislation will include funding for intercity passenger rail. Meanwhile, Congress keeps pushing off its promised “national debate” on the future of passenger rail service.

In early January, Talgo America sent identical letters to Amtrak and at least seven states with an offer to build and lease a minimum of 20 Talgo XXI trainsets. Talgo America CEO Jean-Pierre Ruiz would not comment on the letters, Johnston wrote, “interviews with state DOT officials confirmed” that the 12-car trainsets would include a bistro car and two diesel locomotives built by Siemens of France. The trains would carry between 300 and 330 passengers depending on how seats are configured for Americans with disabilities accessibility and if the cars are business or coach class.

Also, 12-year leases would cost about $1.5 million per year, per trainset, including maintenance, and include an option to apply a portion of the payments toward purchase.

Other locomotives could be substituted to reduce lease costs, and the 20-trainset order could be subdivided in any combination between states or Amtrak, allowing different upholstery and paint – but few other changes – without adding to the cost. Cars would be assembled in the U.S., using shells from Finland and wheelsets from Spain.

Talgo entered the U.S. market in 1994, when it leased a pair of passive-tilt trains for Amtrak’s Pacific Northwest Corridor. Public enthusiasm led the state of Washington and Amtrak to order four custom-designed trainsets.

The Spanish builder set up a U.S. affiliate and rolled out the Cascades in 1999, where it operated under FRA waivers. Ridership grew quickly – and under Talgo’s maintenance model, a technician rides every trip, which resulted in achieving an availability rate unmatched elsewhere in the U.S., according to Trains.

Hoping to generate more sales, Talgo built a fifth trainset as a demonstrator, but the FRA hadn’t completed certifying the Cascades’ European-designed carbodies’ standard use in the U.S. Delays in the approval process limited the demonstration runs to just a few. The FRA eventually grandfathered the Cascades, but by then Talgo had unveiled its seventh-generation trainset: the Talgo XXI, which fully complies with FRA Tier 1 (110 mph) standards.

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Used by Permission
Copyright 2003, NCI, Inc.
Reprint from Destination Freedom, Vol. 4, No. 14.