WASHINGTON -- The Canadian manufacturer that built the Acela Express bullet train filed a $200 million lawsuit against Amtrak in federal court yesterday, alleging the national railroad's aging tunnels, wires, and rails caused the embarrassing year-long delay that preceded the train's introduction last December, according to the Boston Globe.

"When you look at the performance of the trains, they're doing great," said Bombardier Corp. president Peter Stangl, whose company formed a consortium with Alstom SA of France on the $710 million project. "All of the problems have been the infrastructure and the equipment that Amtrak owns and maintains."

Amtrak officials scoffed at the lawsuit, which was filed in US District Court in Washington, D.C., saying the delay was wholly the fault of the consortium. The court action, they said, was a ''story concocted to excuse their own gross mismanagement of this contract.''

The Acela Express, a bullet-nosed train with tilting technology that hits speeds of 150 miles per hour on its run from Boston to Washington, had severe problems with wheel wear, software, and broken bolts prior to its arrival.

Amtrak officials have said the delays cost the financially strapped railroad at least $180 million in revenues, money Amtrak desperately needed to wean itself from federal subsidies. Congress has given Amtrak until the end of next year to operate independently, or face dissolution.

Amtrak officials have pegged the railroad's ability to survive, in large part, on the Acela Express, which offers posh amenities geared toward luring business travelers from the airline shuttles.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which have boosted Acela Express ridership by 40 percent, the delay is all the more painful, said Amtrak spokesman William Schulz.

Bombardier has delivered all 15 locomotives it was contracted to build, but just 15 of the 20 "train sets" -- passenger and dining cars. As a result of the delay, Amtrak has withheld $51 million in payments to Bombardier, and another $20 million to Alstom.

The lawsuit came as a shock to Amtrak, Schulz said, because the contract "has an explicit process to resolve these problems, and for the adjudication of claims."

"That's something they have totally failed to comply with," Schulz said. "They're throwing out the process to pursue a course of litigation that is ill-advised and factually suspect. We will defend ourselves vigorously."

Stangl said the relationship with Amtrak has sullied the name of his company, which is a worldwide player in the rail industry.