Ready to Launch - Amtrak Airo

[EddMarkStarr]

After years of planning, Amtrak has finally announced the replacement for its vast fleet of standard service trains.
Beginning this summer, new Amtrak Airo trains will launch as the current old fleet of trains retire.

This is a very big deal as Amtrak has ordered 83 Airo trains totaling $8 billion.

Thom, from TrainsAreAwesome, attended the 13 February 2026 Amtrak Airo press introduction in Washington DC.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I'm glad we're doing a little for rail, but it feels like we're playing catch-up with India or Peru.

Our nation is so retrograde (no pun intended) when it comes to mass transportation. We have major corridors on both coasts, and in Texas, yet we refuse to either publicly or privately develop high-speed rail.

My great-grandfather worked for railroads for about 65 years. They were the height of transporation then. Now, they are the caboose.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Everything Amtrak is planning should have happened 30 years ago.
The United States should be luxuriating in passenger train service but we are still debating the merits of rail service in general.
The New York Times and Washington Post both sent reporters to the Amtrak Airo event, nice buzz but Amtrak's timeline is too slow.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Everything Amtrak is planning should have happened 30 years ago.
The United States should be luxuriating in passenger train service but we are still debating the merits of rail service in general.
The New York Times and Washington Post both sent reporters to the Amtrak Airo event, nice buzz but Amtrak's timeline is too slow.

Oh, I don't fault Amtrak itself, as I do the USPS. Amtrak doesn't have the power to make high-speed rail happen. And I'm pleased for them that they get new equipment, which should help their morale as well as passengers. And I'd guess our rail system is more like 50-60 years behind the good nations.

The nation itself is at fault. We don't want to pay for infrastructure and we aren't willing to pillory Congress when they tax the working class for peanuts and then refuse to tax the great wealth of this nation sitting in the hands of a gentry class that is inherently dynastic with an inability to lose wealth of the level that we imbue them by our tax and inheritance laws.

The USPS, on the other hand, is guilty of bad hiring practices for decades which all but guarantees bad service all through the system at almost every level. I welcome its downfall, since it no longer gives a damn about citizens and seems to only serve arrogant civil service employees and mass mailers and private companies that appropriate federal resources. Yeah, that's a rant.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

It really is astounding that a wealthy nation like the United States still underfunds transcontinental rail service.
People around the world point out that the USA has the slowest high-speed trains - but just imagine we will go fast . . . someday!

 

[rareboy]

Truly North America lags so far behind the rest of the world. But cheers to Amtrak which seems to always have to improve despite the federal government instead of because of it.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

I was so sure that Trump would target Amtrak because the turnover of the standard service fleet was so carefully planned.

 

[Thad1527]

Thanks for sharing Thom's latest. He was in my neighborhood last year riding SEPTA's suburban trolleys, which I use almost daily.
Maybe I'll check out these Airos when they enter service.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

From 2007, Amtrak train fans across Seattle were delighted when BNSF and Amtrak upgraded the track for the Amtrak Cascades run. The train was advertised as "70 mph Service" but actually ran at speeds limited by track conditions. The two year track upgrade allowed Cascade service to run at advertised speeds and made for exciting viewing at rail stations along the route.

Of course, by 2011, local complaints about the Amtrak Cascade blowing through train crossing at full speed caused a rethink by Amtrak and speeds were reduced along the route, especially in Kent, Washington, a town that complained the loudest about train speeds, many times the train was at the crossing gate while the gate was still coming down!

Slower speeds by 2011 also made the Amtrak Cascades easier to photograph.

 

[smokeshadow]

Gorgeous rail vehicles Though I do miss the old-fashioned steam engines

 

[Norri]

The economics of rail transport the world over is you make money hauling freight and loose money hauling humans. Other countries understand that you have to subsidize public transportation as a public good and then there is the United States where we believe everything and every person should support themselves.