USA: Brightline West and Siemens Mobility have unveiled a scale model and renderings of the American Pioneer 220 high speed trainsets designed to operate at up to 355 km/h on the planned high speed line linking Las Vegas with Rancho Cucamonga east of Los Angeles.
Siemens Mobility has already supplied 200 km/h push-pull diesel trains for Brightline’s inter-city services in Florida, and in May it was selected as preferred bidder to supply and maintain 10 seven-car trainsets for the 351 km Brightline West project.
The AP220 trainsets will be based on Siemens Mobility’s established Velaro family. Announcing on September 9 that the trains would be produced at a site in Horseheads in New York state, Siemens Mobility said ’business commuters and leisure passengers alike will enjoy a comfortable ride as they drive by those sitting in automobile traffic on the freeway’.
The AP220 trains will have an ‘ultrawide’ body based on an empty tube concept, with a capacity of 434 to 450 passengers depending on the final interior configuration. Features will include large seats and ‘party car’ and high speed internet connectivity. ‘The most accessible high speed rail vehicle on the market’ will enable passengers in wheelchairs to move throughout the entire trainset.
Siemens Mobility CEO Michael Peter said the AP220 would be ‘designed with the latest digital twin technology and leveraging world-class digital rail solutions’, including the Railigent X asset management platform. The trains would come with ’cutting-edge advancements including a revolutionary gearless propulsion system that reduces energy consumption by 30% and allows it to climb effortlessly at steep grades’.
Brightline CEO Michael Reininger said ’reaching speeds of over 300 km/h, these trains will be marked by the latest innovations designed for the modern traveller and establishing a new benchmark in transportation’.
- Subscribers can read an in-depth article on the Brightline West project from the February 2024 issue of Railway Gazette International magazine.
