In the first of what is hoped to be many upgrades in railroad tracks, Amtrak announced that 45 miles of its track in southwest Michigan was converted to a new high-speed rail system.
The new track, laid between Kalamazoo and New Buffalo, runs along Amtrack’s Detroit to Chicago corridor.
The upgrade, developed by Harmon Industries Inc. of Blue Springs, Mo., allows trains to surpass the previous limit of 79 mph set by the Federal Railroad Administration and reach 90 mph, said Jeff Baker, product manager for the system.
“It combines an onboard computer on each one of the locomotives with information from the wayside signaling system,” he said. “It really provides the operator with information of what’s ahead.”
The system allows speeds of up to 125 mph but has only been tested at speeds up to 100 mph, Baker said.
GE Transportation Systems, the company that developed the system, will begin testing at speeds of more than 100 mph on Feb. 11, a plus to the company competing for travelers, he said.
“We’ve been working on the system with Amtrak since 1996,” he said. “The team has just now begun discussion about extending the tracks, which would help Amtrak, so it can compete with air services.”
The project required a careful review of the stretch, especially where the track came in contact with other forms of transportation.
Railroad crossings were upgraded or reworked to avoid conflict between the trains and cars, Ari Adler, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation said.
“(Safety’s) obviously one of the reasons that’s held up high-speed rail,” he said.
The 45-mile upgraded stretch represents the only track Amtrak owns in Michigan, but Amtrak and MDOT are looking into extending the high-speed rail system through Michigan, Adler said.
“The goal is to eventually from, Detroit to Chicago, have a high-speed corridor,” he said. “I think it is possible, one of the questions is whether we’re going to see more federal funding.”
The Federal Railroad Administration funded a majority of the project and Amtrak hopes to see more help to create the high-speed Detroit-Chicago corridor, Amtrack spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon said.
“It was a nice segment of track to demonstrate (the technology),” she said. “It shows we can deal with a lot of different variables like the weather.”
Extension of the project has already been studied south of Chicago, which could be the next step in creating the corridor.
Amtrak is already looking at upgrading more of the Michigan stretch, both with high-speed rails and with improvements in traveler comfort, Cantillon said.
“The Detroit-Chicago corridor has always been very important to Amtrak,” she said.
