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December 23, 2025|Intercity

OIG to Amtrak: Improved Facilities Planning Needed to Support New Trains

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
(Courtesy of Amtrak OIG)
(Courtesy of Amtrak OIG)

While Amtrak has started upgrading its maintenance facilities to support major fleet acquisitions, including NextGen Acela, Airo, and planned Long Distance trains, developing and implementing a strategic plan would help the company “make better-informed decisions about its long-term facility needs,” and “fully implementing a management framework” for facility upgrades would help it “gain efficiencies and other benefits not apparent from managing these projects individually,” the latest Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG) report has found (download below).

OIG-A-2026-002 National FacilitiesDownload

This report, “Major Programs: Improved Planning for Maintenance Facility Upgrades Could Help the Company Better Meet Its Fleet Goals,” is the result of OIG’s audit of Amtrak’s National Facilities program. “Our objective was to assess the company’s management of the program and to identify any risks to achieving its goals,” said the OIG, which conducted its work from December 2024 through December 2025 in Seattle, Wash.; Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Washington, D.C. 

Amtrak is spending an estimated $4 billion to upgrade and modify some of its maintenance facilities in support of its $8 billion (at minimum) new fleet, but two key “challenges … have delayed its progress,” according to the OIG. They are:

  1. Incomplete strategic planning: Amtrak’s facility planning “has lagged behind its fleet planning by about 15 years even though the two efforts are closely interconnected,” the OIG said.
  2. The lack of a management framework: Amtrak “is separately managing dozens of facility projects rather than managing them as a single, coordinated effort, as called for by company and industry standards,” the OIG said.

As a result, “some facilities will not be ready in time to service the company’s new trains, which could hinder its ability to fully operate the new equipment at the intended service levels,” the OIG reported. “Instead, the company may need to store some new trains intermittently, which could postpone the capture of additional revenue. Further facility delays—which remain a risk—would add to the existing delays in fully operating its new fleets.”

Level 1 Maintenance and Inspection facilities are Amtrak’s largest maintenance facilities, which it uses to perform ongoing maintenance activities such as periodic inspections, and other major mechanical activities that require the use of a crane, according to the OIG. These facilities are usually located near major terminals throughout the network. The company initially plans to upgrade six of its Level 1 facilities (pictured above).(Courtesy of the OIG)
(Courtesy of the OIG)
“If the current schedule holds, company officials told us—and company documents show—they can operate the first 24 of 28 NextGen Acela trainsets and the first 12 of 83 Airo trainsets without additional maintenance facility capacities,” the OIG reported. “After that point, however, they may not be able to fully operate the new trainsets until completing additional facilities modifications. For example, under current schedule projections, the number of new Airo trainsets may exceed the company’s maintenance capacity intermittently over the first four years of revenue service, as Figure 3 [above] shows.” (Courtesy of the OIG)

To address Amtrak’s incomplete strategic planning and lack of a management framework, the OIG recommended that:

  • Amtrak Executive Vice President, Strategy and Planning Jennifer Mitchell “[c]ontinue to develop and implement a joint strategic fleet/facilities plan. The plan should define company goals, timelines, and next steps to ensure that the company’s fleet and facilities efforts align. The plan should also include an inventory of existing facilities and a method to continuously assess which modifications are critical to support future operations and reprioritize, as needed.” Mitchell, in commenting on a draft of the OIG report, agreed with the recommendation. “Management stated that the company finalized the fiscal year 2026 Strategic Fleet and Facilities Plan in November 2025 and that this plan addresses the topics noted in our recommendation,” the OIG reported. “Management also stated that the company initiated development of three documents that lay out more detailed strategies for addressing fleet acquisition, facility development, and funding and financing of fleet and facilities projects. The target completion date is June 30, 2026.”
  • Amtrak Executive Vice President, Capital Delivery Laura Mason “[d]evelop and implement a management framework for … facility upgrades, including a management plan with the requisite components outlined in company and industry standards. This should include a risk management process and tools, such as a risk register.” In commenting on a draft of the OIG report, Mason agreed with the recommendation, according to the OIG, and the “target completion date is March 31, 2026.”

Further Reading: