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Great news! I hope prices go back down a bit thanks to the extra capacity. I used to take Acela 3 times a week about a decade ago and they were rarely completely full. Now they're more expensive and fully booked much of the time, which is a real shame.
Finally! I saw these new trains stationed at Philadelphia Train Station. They're beautiful. I just wished they could operate at real high speed throughout the NEC.
I have traveled a fair amount via Amtrak, and in general, I don't really like their newer cars. The old ones were fabric, huge bathrooms, spacious and comfy. The double decker ones had a feeling like you were almost in a traveling apartment. These new ones feel like the new plane interiors: more cramped, more plastic, etc. Nothing to scream at the sky about, but solidly a step down IMO. Maybe I'm just getting old lol…
Unfortunately Siemens has become something of a monopoly outside of Asia and France for passenger trains and they've apparently decided that train travel should be uncomfortable, with bad seats and harsh lighting.
The upside to these new Acela trains is that they were built by the French railcar maker Alstrom, not by Siemens like the rest of the new Amtrak carriages.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trains compete with highways, faster speed usually isn't the deciding factor.
That’s only true with short distances or crappy trains. I’ll drive DC to NYC rather than take the train, as it’s cheaper and not much slower. If Acela were a proper high-speed line I might switch. DC to Boston is close to a toss up, ~7 vs ~9 hours, but a proper high-speed train that did it in 2.5 hours would be really attractive.
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem like it will speed up travel much at all. Based on my understanding, travel times in the northeast are limited not by the top speed of the trains, but by the tracks, and the fact that freight is prioritized.
> “NextGen Acela is more than a new train—it’s an evolution of travel,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. Everyone's using ChatGPT these days.
Executives have been talking like that for a long time :)
Love how they mention they’re built in the US by union workers…likely at 10x the cost of making them elsewhere. Modern day unions in the US is not what you think they are. They are the reason why we can’t have fast infrastructure upgrades. People in Japan/Korea/EU figured it out why can’t we have them here in the US?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trains compete with highways, faster speed usually isn't the deciding factor.
That’s only true with short distances or crappy trains. I’ll drive DC to NYC rather than take the train, as it’s cheaper and not much slower. If Acela were a proper high-speed line I might switch. DC to Boston is close to a toss up, ~7 vs ~9 hours, but a proper high-speed train that did it in 2.5 hours would be really attractive.
Great news! I hope prices go back down a bit thanks to the extra capacity. I used to take Acela 3 times a week about a decade ago and they were rarely completely full. Now they're more expensive and fully booked much of the time, which is a real shame.
How is "full booked" a real shame?