March 26, 2023 | Intercity

Veteran Railroaders Question Amfleet Safety

Written by David Peter Alan, Contributing Editor


Amfleet I car, sometime in the 1970s. Amtrak photo.

Two veteran railroaders with 110 years’ experience between them have called for Amtrak to phase out its use of Budd Company-built Amfleet equipment on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) for safety reasons. They claim that the speeds at which conventional trains run on the nation’s busiest, fastest passenger railroad line poses a risk to the cars and their passengers, a risk not present at conventional speeds. Amfleets there run as fast as 125 mph, while passenger trains on most lines elsewhere are limited to 79 mph.


Paul Reistrup

The warning comes from Paul H. Reistrup, who ordered the cars at issue when he was President of Amtrak in the mid-1970s. Reistrup began his railroad career in a civil engineering capacity with the Baltimore & Ohio in 1957, and spent time managing passenger service there and at the Illinois Central before coming to Amtrak in 1975 to take the top job.

Joining Reistrup in this initiative is Scott R. Spencer, who started his railroad career in 1979 when he was a student at Northeastern University. His career included jobs at New Jersey Transit and SEPTA in Philadelphia, as well as consulting in Alaska and as an adviser for high-speed rail in Taiwan. Today he is Chief Operating Officer of AmeriStarRail, which has a plan for enhanced service along the NEC and on other lines from Richmond, Va. to the Downeaster line in Maine. He has also proposed a plan for an “Air Train” to JFK Airport in New York, which differs from the former Port Authority plan, and the “Baltimore Grand Slam,” a comprehensive plan for integrating rail transit in that city.


Scott Spencer

Reistrup and Spencer are particularly concerned about the speeds at which Amfleet cars operate on the NEC, especially since they will soon be 50 years old. Specifically, Reistrup refers to patched side sills that diminish buff strength. He says that they could buckle during an accident. He notes that the Federal Railroad Administration has a policy of requiring that most freight cars be retired at age 40, but no similar retirement age for passenger equipment, even though such cars are subject to vibrations and wear and tear as they accumulate miles. Spencer agrees, expressing concern that “there are no over-age regulations for passenger cars.” He analogizes to an automobile: “A 1975 model might be safe, but a 2023 model is safer.”

Spencer adds that 70% of Amtrak’s NEC riders are on Amfleet cars. He tells Railway Age he believes that “‘Safety First’ is not just a motto, it’s the way we run our careers,” and “safety independence is critical.” He points out that, since kinetic energy rises with the square of the speed of a moving train, higher speeds result in more-severe impact forces in an accident: “You have to respect the physics.” Kinetic energy (in joules) is one-half of the product of the mass times the square of velocity, the physics behind Reistrup’s and Spencer’s concern.

Spencer says that he and Reistrip are calling attention to risks in the current NEC operation and infrastructure to prevent another wreck, like the one north of Philadelphia involving Train 188 on May 12, 2015, which killed eight people and injured more than 200. Spencer blames the severity of that wreck in part on the immovable catenary poles along the line. Reistrup, now 90, agrees: “These poles in concrete are as old as I am.” Spencer adds, “We don’t want to wait for another wreck. We are in uncharted territory. When in doubt, take the safest route.”

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