OIG report: Delays in maintenance facility upgrades may hinder Amtrak’s ability to fully operate its new trains

December 22, 2025

WASHINGTON – Amtrak has experienced challenges in planning and managing its $4 billion effort to upgrade its maintenance facilities, potentially hindering its ability to fully operate its new trains, an Amtrak Office of Inspector General report released today found.

According to the report, Amtrak requires facilities upgrades to support its newest trains, including NextGen Acela, Airo, and its planned long distance trains. However, some facilities will not be ready in time to service Amtrak’s new trains, the report said. If the current schedule holds, the company can only operate the first 24 of 28 NextGen Acela trainsets and the first 12 of 83 Airo trainsets without additional capacity to maintain the new trains.

If the company cannot find other ways or locations to maintain its new equipment, that equipment may need to sit idle intermittently, the report said. Company officials told the OIG that this would delay the company from capturing the additional revenue it anticipates from its new trainsets.

The OIG found that two factors contributed to these circumstances. First, the company’s facility planning has significantly lagged behind its fleet planning, with efforts to address maintenance facilities beginning 15 years after the company began planning to replace its aging fleet. Although Amtrak’s December 2024 fleet plan described the importance of facility planning, the company has not fully implemented a strategic plan to guide its efforts, the report said.

Amtrak has since received approval from executive leadership and the Board of Directors for its newly drafted joint Strategic Fleet and Facilities Plan, the OIG noted, but the plan is incomplete and the company recognized it has more planning to do. Until Amtrak completes its planning, it is limited in its ability to make informed decisions about its long-term facility needs, the report said.

The second factor identified by the OIG is that Amtrak has not established a management framework for its facilities efforts. While Amtrak established its National Facilities program in 2023 to manage and coordinate the facility upgrades needed to support the new trains, the OIG found that approximately two years later, the company was still separately managing dozens of facility projects that fall under the program, contrary to company and industry standards.

Because of this, Amtrak may be missing opportunities to better manage risk, schedule, and personnel resources across the facilities work, the OIG reported. For example, Amtrak officials found similar risks at three facilities, but project teams at each facility addressed them independently without identifying whether the same issues appear across multiple projects or elevating shared risks for program- or portfolio-level evaluation and resource allocation.

In October 2025, Amtrak hired a Senior Risk Manager to help manage risk, and the OIG recognized this as positive step. Prior work by the OIG shows, however, that without a risk management process, the likelihood increases that Amtrak will realize risks that could significantly increase costs, delay the schedule, and impact its ability to deliver a program successfully.

To ensure that the company’s fleet and facilities efforts align, the OIG recommended that the company continue to develop a joint strategic fleet/facilities plan that defines company goals, timelines, and next steps. It also recommended that the company develop a management framework for its facility upgrades, including a risk management process.

More information is included in the full report which can be downloaded on the OIG’s website: https://direc.to/oibR.

Reports of fraud, waste, or abuse; criminal or unethical acts affecting Amtrak’s property or operations; or mismanagement in Amtrak programs or operations can be made 24 hours a day via the Amtrak OIG Hotline at 1-800-468-5469 or online at https://direc.to/hPAu.

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