Amtrak's New 160mph Acela Trains Take Just As Long As the Old Ones (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0178921022
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/28/2128257/amtraks-new-160mph-acela-trains-take-just-as-long-as-the-old-ones
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/28/generative-ai-reshapes-us-job-market-stanford-study-shows-entry-level-young-workers.html
> Acela runs from Washington, DC's Union Station to Boston via Philadelphia, New York Penn Station, New Haven, and Providence. It's a total distance of 457 miles, with the fastest next-gen Acela journey being six hours and 43 minutes, five minutes slower than the quickest end-to-end time offered by the old Acela trains, introduced in 2000. However, this may be because, as is common practice with new trains the world over, Amtrak is scheduling longer dwell times at stations so staff and passengers can adjust to them. The next-gen sets have a top service speed that's 10mph faster -- though this can only be achieved on certain sections of the mostly 110mph route -- and an enhanced "anticipative" tilting system that allows for higher speeds through curves.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/28/generative-ai-reshapes-us-job-market-stanford-study-shows-entry-level-young-workers.html
The problem is the right of way (Score:5, Interesting)
It's too curvy with bridges too old and outdated to handle high speed traffic for the most part. Just fixing the bridges would fix most of this, as you can't really overcome the turn issues, but there's still plenty of straightaways. The old trains could go about twice as fast as they were ever run on the NEC because of the same problem.
Re: The problem is the right of way (Score:2)
I'm not convinced any bridgework could make it faster. As I recall, there are two tracks "southbound" out of New Haven, two tracks "northbound" out of Providence, and both those routes need sharing with commuter rail.
Re: (Score:3)
It has inertial compensation - it tilts. The reason is partly track geometry as you point out, partly dwell times, but mostly because of [1]catenary [reddit.com] [2]upgrades [hsrail.org] are lagging.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/transit/comments/1ixhkyk/acela_avelia_liberty_speed_increases/
[2] https://www.hsrail.org/blog/nextgen-acela-trains-with-top-speeds-of-160-mph-begin-running-in-northeast-corridor/
Re: The problem is the right of way (Score:2)
It's simple, there are too many stops, and a train that holds more passengers has to spend longer times at stations so those extra passengers can get on/off the train.
This is the same issue the famous (infamous?) CA "Bullet Train" has. The train can go very fast, but the plan to connect SF to LA added a significant number of miles (25% or more greater distance than a straight shot down the coastline) to the route and added pointless stops along the way, preventing the train from actually spending any real t
Re: (Score:2)
The coast is not the straightest route. The straightest would pretty much follow the 5 freeway. I have heard it would have been less expensive to build as straight a line as possible PLUS build a branch that went to Fresno anyway.
What has killed it is NIMBYs and also a lot of land owners who realized they could demand any amount of money they wanted to build some tracks on their land.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah a lot of the stops on that really should have been regional spurs coming from high speed stations in a later phase or separate project.
Re: (Score:3)
Bridges are actually straight. The curves are on land.
However the basic problem is that raising the maximum speed is not going to make any difference when the previous trains couldn't reach their maximum speed either.
Always in a hurry (Score:2)
People are always in a big damned hurry.
I enjoy the train because it provides a reprieve from that. If I'm in a big damned hurry, I'll take a plane, or at least drive my car.
Las train ride I was on was 3 days. Nice and slow. I enjoyed it.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're in a hurry, the Acela train will get you there quicker than a plane. The process of getting on and off board is much smoother and less complicated, as is luggage handling. There's no taxi time or wait time for other planes to take off, and no holding pattern on your way in to the destination. These times add up significantly.
That link ... (Score:2)
... to a story about AI? If I didn't know any better, I'd say the summary was written by AI. And AI has discovered the RickRoll.
Meanwhile (Score:2)
In China...