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Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

media.amtrak.com

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Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#61

Post by orwin »

komali2 wrote: post #34
lvl155 wrote: post #21

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?

Japan and the EU, and to a lesser extent, Korea, have actual social safety nets and their unions have the protection and support of the State. In the USA the Union might be the only reason a certain profession has a healthcare plan at all. The relationship is so combative, unions basically have to adopt a "fuck you I'll get mine" attitude or they're passing things over the bargaining table for nothing in return. Amer…

To add a complementary point: Unions here are 'global', i.e while you have some sector-specific unions (police, farmers), most unions are 'piloted' by a central bureau, that can't actually force a strike or prevent one, but can add guidelines for strikes, present a plan, decide to organise sympathy strikes or not, decide on compensating striking workers on some specific strike to make it last longer: a postal strike limited to the single city I lived in pre-COVID lasted 6 weeks and you had white collar workers, sometimes in business suit, sometimes dressed like me (probably usually working in IT) doing the mail distribution. It only lasted 6 weeks because the central union decided to use their 'strike comp' budget on this topic that specific year.

And unions make you vote a lot. Once every year for my representative, plus almost every time a sympathy strike can be organised.

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#62

Post by bichiliad »

ethbr1 wrote: post #57
theturtle wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally, freight is supposed to yield to passengers nationwide. It's in the legislation that created Amtrak over fifty years ago. It has never been enforced, and trump isn't about to do it. The UP/NS merger will make it worse. On Amtrak-controlled trackage, there is hope. Northeast Corridor is their show.

Indeed. My understanding was that for most of the country it's de facto the opposite: Amtrak yields to freight. For as much as Biden purported to be a pro-passenger train President, you'd think he would have done something about that.

The problem is that the freight companies run these incredibly long trains now, which no longer fit into the siding (a bit of track that splits off from and then reconnects to the main track to allow one train to pass the other). So even if a freight train wanted to, it couldn’t let another train pass unless the freight companies invested in longer sidings or shorter trains.

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#63

Post by Gud »

acmj wrote: post #41
ghc wrote: post #28

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?

Rail should be easy to use.

I live in Switzerland where people are so comfortable taking the train they treat it like an extension of their living room.

Only in rare cases do I even book tickets in advance, like when going to Milano… otherwise I just use the Fairtiq app, which is a nation wide system for paying for tickets, including busses and trams…

You swipe right before you step on, swipe left when you step off and the system automatically calculates the best ticket for you.

There isn’t a “fully booked”.

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#64

Post by conception »

Gud wrote: post #63
acmj wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is "full booked" a real shame?

Rail should be easy to use. I live in Switzerland where people are so comfortable taking the train they treat it like an extension of their living room. Only in rare cases do I even book tickets in advance, like when going to Milano… otherwise I just use the Fairtiq app, which is a nation wide system for paying for tickets, including busses and trams… You swipe right before you step on, swipe left when you step off a…

Switzerland is also the size of one of the smallest states in America.

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#65

Post by Gud »

conception wrote: post #64
Gud wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rail should be easy to use. I live in Switzerland where people are so comfortable taking the train they treat it like an extension of their living room. Only in rare cases do I even book tickets in advance, like when going to Milano… otherwise I just use the Fairtiq app, which is a nation wide system for paying for tickets, including busses and trams… You swipe right before you step on, swipe left when you step off a…

Switzerland is also the size of one of the smallest states in America.

And, what’s your point?

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#66

Post by op00to »

jeffbee wrote: post #60
op00to wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American Airlines also shows busses as flights from EWR to PHL. :)

Now there's a route where I would certainly choose Amtrak over air.

As far as I can tell, you clear security the normal way at your origin airport, and enter inside security at the intermediate hop. Not a terrible way to travel, I think. With taxi time and delays at EWR, it might not even be that much slower!

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#67

Post by UtopiaPunk »

Gud wrote: post #63
acmj wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is "full booked" a real shame?

Rail should be easy to use. I live in Switzerland where people are so comfortable taking the train they treat it like an extension of their living room. Only in rare cases do I even book tickets in advance, like when going to Milano… otherwise I just use the Fairtiq app, which is a nation wide system for paying for tickets, including busses and trams… You swipe right before you step on, swipe left when you step off a…

I visited Switzerland recently and loved the train network. One really awesome feature was that the train stations basically doubled as shopping malls. Which makes a lot of sense, imo!

We'd leave our room for the day, have breakfast at a restaurant or coffee shop in the train station, then jump on the train to whatever outing we had planned. At the end of the day, we'd take the train back, pick up some groceries at one of the grocery stores in the station (I saw at least two major grocery stores in our station), and then head to the room and make dinner. I also needed to visit a pharmacy at one point during our stay, and the only pharmacy open at that sleepy hour was at the train station.

The train stations are really major hubs for the towns. Even if I didn't need to take the train that day, I was still likely to make a trip down to the train station for something. It's smart.

Re: Amtrak NextGen Acela Debuts on August 28

#68

Post by apple4ever »

sevensor wrote: post #42
atbpaca wrote: post #5

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 wish they had reasonable service through Pittsburgh to points west. The Pittsburgh station is sadly neglected.

Oooof it is. I went through there on the way to Chicago and couldn't believe it. "Is this really it?" It's like a station in rural Idaho, not one in a major city.
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