Amtrak officials said last week they had still not resolved the problem they were experiencing with wheels on new high-speed train sets slated for high speed service between Washington, D.C. and Boston. Amtrak officials announced in September that the problem would delay the start of the new fast service from this fall until January, 2000.

However, as of this week, Northeast Corridor train travelers are still being delayed by track work east of New Haven, raising questions about whether other areas of the Amtrak project were indeed on schedule for a fall start of service.

Amtrak says its high-speed rail service will shave the Boston-New York trip to about three hours and New York-Washington run to two hours, 45 minutes, and expects those services to put a dent in air shuttle markets. Express travelers will pay a premium price for the fast service, however. But an Amtrak spokesperson told the Campaign that the track improvements between New York and Boston and the electrification of the New Haven-Boston track would reduce the currently five-hour NY-Boston run by about an hour for all of its trains.

When the high-speed service begins, Amtrak will change the way it markets train travel, launching "Acela" express, regional and commuter services. Regional service will cover most of today's existing Amtrak service. Express service will cover the fastest trains, and absorb the existing NY-Washington Metroliner operation.

Hopefully, the overhaul will allow Amtrak to make some progress in instilling a culture of punctuality and communication about schedule problems that now seems to be badly lacking in its non-Metroliner operations.