ALBANY, N.Y. -- Ongoing difficulties in marrying modern European train technology to 1970s American-made locomotives have again delayed high-speed trains that were supposed to start carrying Capital Region passengers to New York City more than a year ago, the Albany Times Union reports.

After several setbacks in production of the first two of seven locomotives to be reconditioned under a $74.2 million contract with Super Steel Schenectady, officials with the state Department of Transportation had expected as recently as December to run comprehensive tests of the fast trains in January.

Those tests did not take place, however, and no new date has yet been set for them. DOT is making no projections on when the trains will be in service.

"When you are dealing with a technology that is foreign to the United States, it takes time to work out the bugs,'' said DOT spokesman Peter Graves. "Things come up as we do diagnostic tests on a lot of component parts. It's not the kind of thing where we're looking to beat the clock. We don't want anybody to get on these trains unless we're 100 percent sure they're the safest way you can travel on a rail.''

The locomotives being rebuilt were manufactured in the mid-1970s in California by the Rohr company. The original French design was adapted to meet American standards and travel on American tracks.

There are three main design issues now being addressed by European parts manufacturers and engineers with the state and Super Steel, Graves said.

The first concern is the configuration of the control console in the engineer's cab, which DOT engineers felt needed changes to improve ergonomics and safety.

Work also is under way to upgrade the "slip-slide system'' for the wheels, which Graves described as analogous to anti-lock brakes in an automobile. The initial sensors did not seem to be consistently tripping the brakes, he said.

Finally, the air conditioning system was considered too noisy.

"It's not a cattle car. This is supposed to be a luxury passenger train,'' Graves said.

So far, DOT officials are not expecting the delays to increase the contract cost with Super Steel -- though correspondence obtained by the Times Union in November indicated that Super Steel's Wisconsin parent company, Super Steel Inc., had begun, in essence, subsidizing the turboliner project, advancing more than $7 million to the Glenville plant to keep it operational.

The costs of converting the locomotives, as well as related infrastructure improvements, are to be shared by the state, Amtrak and the federal government under a complex formula that changes as more trains are produced.

Super Steel Schenectady's general manager, Bill Carr, declined comment last week on the high-speed train project.

"We're very confident in Super Steel's ability to live up to the terms of the contract,'' Graves said. "They've done an outstanding job, and we don't consider them to be the cause of the delay.''

The president of a rail travel advocacy group said the new delays are more disappointing than alarming. "From our standpoint, we're continually disappointed by news of further delays, but we are encouraged that the state believes this can be resolved,'' said Bruce Becker of the Empire State Passengers Association.

The gas-powered turboliners would be the world's fastest non-electric trains and provide a possible prototype for high-speed rail projects around the country. Amtrak's Acela Express, the only high-speed rail service now available in the Northeast, travels only along lines between Boston, New York City and Washington D.C. and runs on electric power.

When in service, the rebuilt locomotives are expected to shave at least 20 minutes off the the 142-mile trip between Rensselaer and Manhattan, now 2 hours and 25 minutes.

In addition, plans call for $140 million to be spent on infrastructure projects, including addition of another track between Albany and Schenectady, rehabilitation of the Livingston Avenue railroad bridge in Albany, general track improvements and upgrades to Amtrak's Rensselaer maintenance facility. DOT and Amtrak officials say some of those changes should help further speed travel time on the turboliners.

It's all part of a high-speed rail development program first announced by Gov. George Pataki in 1998, but there has been little urgency to complete the infrastructure work until the first locomotives go into service.

On Thursday, state Comptroller H. Carl McCall's staff approved a related supplemental agreement between DOT and Amtrak outlining plans for spending $62 million of the $140 million in infrastructure money, but raised concerns about whether DOT is ensuring that costs are being shared according to the formulas agreed upon at the outset by the state, federal government and Amtrak.

In a letter to Norman R. Schneider, director of DOT's Freight and Economic Development Division, Joan M. Sullivan, the comptroller's director of contracts, said the comptroller's staff has decided to audit project finances to date.

"We're concerned that they don't appear to be adequately tracking what is happening,'' said Theresa Bourgeois, a McCall spokeswoman.

Because it appears the DOT has not kept up with quarterly "reconciliations,'' records that should update and verify the money spent from each source for high-speed rail-related work, the comptroller's staff has not been able to determine whether costs are being shared according to plan, Bourgeois said.

Melissa Carlson, a DOT spokeswoman, said the agency "welcomes the review as long as it's done in a nonpartisan, professional manner.''