Construction recently began on Amtrak’s new, $462 million heavy maintenance facility at Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia.
The nearly 350,000-square-foot facility will feature two adjacent service and cleaning tracks and a two-bay maintenance and inspection area with inspection pits, a drop table, and fueling pads.
Other work includes utility relocation, constructing retaining walls and storage buildings, and the replacement of electric power structures.
The facility is expected to open in 2027 and will conduct daily inspections, service and cleaning on many of Amtrak’s Acela, Northeast Regional, Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian trains that travel on the Northeast Corridor. Maintenance and heavy maintenance repairs also will be conducted at the facility.
“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,” Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said. “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.”
Construction will take place in two phases.
The Penn Coach Yard is the first of six major rail yards Amtrak plans to upgrade over the next few years.