Trip Report: Amtrak's Acela Express Service

On December 26 I had the opportunity to take Amtrak's Acela train from Boston to New York. James had flown to New York on Friday night, and I was meeting him there. Our grandparents live in New York, so we would stay until Tuesday, when we come home on the Northeast Regional. Having family in New York, I take the train on this route quite often, but always on the Regional service. This was my first time on the Acela.

Of course, I happened to pick a day when a big snowstorm is slamming the entire East Coast. It started snowing lightly in the morning, but the big stuff was supposed to be in the afternoon and evening...when I would be traveling. I showed up to the bus terminal in Nashua to get my bus to Boston. One of my friends was working the ticket counter and told me I picked a good time to get the bus, as all the buses after mine were canceled due to the weather. I bought my ticket and got on the bus, and as I rode closer to Boston, the snow kept getting heavier. I got to Boston on time and got my Amtrak tickets. I checked the departure board to see that my Acela was the last southbound Amtrak train running, all others were canceled due to the weather. Not a good sign for my New York connection to the Long Island Railroad!

I had some time to kill before my train left, so I went to the end of one of the platforms to take photos of another Acela train leaving. Aside from this train, the station was empty. While I was out there, a Regional backed into the station to head south, and a few MBTA trains came and went. Another Regional arrived and the southbound one left almost at the same time, and the Acela left about ten minutes later. After that I was getting cold so I headed back inside to wait for my train.

The train was announced right on time. I boarded the train, picked a seat with a table and a good window and sat down. The train's consist was a power car, a first class car, a business class car which was also the quiet car, another business class car, a cafe car, two more business class cars, and the other power car. I was in the business class car just past the cafe car. The seats were either leather or leather-like, it was hard to tell, but definitely much more comfortable than the Amfleet seats. I sat down at a table, which had a power outlet and the whole train had free wi-fi. I actually started writing this blog post on the train.

We made good time through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. We stopped at Back Bay, Route 128, and Providence. I was amazed at how quickly we got that far. Once we left Providence, we made no stops until New Haven, and we got there in a hurry. It was definitely a much faster train. However, upon reaching New Haven, we left Amtrak trackage and entered Metro-North territory, where the track speed dropped from 150mph to 60mph.

For a high-speed train, I feel this is unacceptable. 150mph through Massachusetts and Rhode Island is an excellent standard, but 60mph through Connecticut is not. It is the same speed as the commuter trains and slower than cars on the Interstate. There is nothing high-speed about it. New Haven is most of the way to New York. The train is scheduled to take two hours to get to New Haven, and another hour and a half to get to New York. I don't blame Amtrak for this. It is on Metro-North property and Metro-North should learn to cooperate with Amtrak like countless other rail agencies have.

We made it to New York about 20 minutes late. Considering the snow that was piling up by this point, I feel we made pretty good time. I made my way over to the Long Island concourse, bought my ticket, and waited for my train to Mineola. But that is a story for next week's blog post!