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October 7, 2024|Intercity

Amtrak Breaks Ground on $462MM Maintenance Facility Project

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Rendering of Amtrak’s new 350,000 square-foot heavy maintenance facility at Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia, Pa. (Courtesy of Amtrak)
Rendering of Amtrak’s new 350,000 square-foot heavy maintenance facility at Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia, Pa. (Courtesy of Amtrak)
Amtrak on Oct. 4 kicked off construction of its new heavy maintenance facility at Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia, Pa.

The facility, slated to open in 2027, will be used for daily inspections, service, and cleaning, plus life-cycle maintenance and heavy-maintenance repairs. It will service many of the Acela, Northeast Regional, Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian trains that operate along the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Amtrak earlier this year awarded Herzog Contracting Corporation a contract to design and construct the facility, which will encompass nearly 350,000 square feet and feature a two-bay Maintenance and Inspection (M&I) facility with inspection pits, a drop table, and fueling pads at each end, as well as two adjacent Service and Cleaning (S&C) tracks. Among the other upgrades: a new direct fixation track within the M&I and S&C areas; removal of existing and installation of new catenary structures; new retaining walls and storage buildings; and utility relocations.

Amtrak said this $462 million project is being funded entirely through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (a.k.a., the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law).

Construction will take place in two phases within the existing rail yard footprint, Amtrak said, and require relocating existing functions currently spread around Penn Coach Yard into one consolidated multifunctional facility.

Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner (second from left) was joined by Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose, White House Deputy Assistant to the President for Infrastructure Implementation Samantha Silverberg and Rail Passengers Association President & CEO Jim Mathews to celebrate the start of construction for Amtrak’s new heavy maintenance facility at Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia. (Amtrak Photograph)

“This new maintenance facility is critical to upgrading the customer experience with new state-of-the-art trains, combined with our other major infrastructure projects,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner, who took part in the Oct. 4 groundbreaking ceremony (see photograph above). “This project and several others like it will help drive continued ridership growth and future service expansion thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and continued support from the Biden-Harris Administration, Congress and many other partners around the country.”

The Penn Coach Yard is one of six major Amtrak rail yards that will be upgraded with new facilities to support maintenance activities, routine inspections, equipment repairs, and minor service and cleaning needs. The others are: Southampton Street Yard in Boston, Mass.; Sunnyside Yard in Queens, N.Y.; Ivy City Yard in Washington, D.C.; Rensselaer, N.Y. Yard; and King Street Yard in Seattle, Wash., for which Amtrak recently selected PCL Construction Services, Inc. to design and build a new maintenance facility. Several layover sites outside the NEC will also be built or renovated, Amtrak said; these are located along existing routes where trains are cleaned, serviced or stored, such as Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pa.