I love the New Avelia Liberty trains. They looks so nice and modern! Just one problem......the tracks......No matter how good the train is, it can never reach full potential if the tracks are still the same as they are now. I dont live in the NEC, so Im not updated alot on the maintenance going on, but I hope things get better because omg the NEC needs better tracks. Loved the video :)) I forgot to mention I looked over the entire network and alot of the main parts just need entirely new Infrastructure period. It's too old :/
While the NEC may have laid new roadbed, ties, and tracks, Amtrak did so on former PRR right of way designed for steam locomotives that topped off at 30+ MPH. There are old tunnels and old bridges on that former PRR right of way, 150+ years in age, serving the downtown large stations in the large cities. Building a new HSR corridor adjacent to the NEC is impossible without tearing down the cities adjacent to the NEC, or building new HSR stations out in the outer suburbs which would not serve these large cities downtowns. The outer suburbs have the airports. And I doubt whether a new HSR corridor could be built within 30 miles of the NEC over half the route unless the HSR corridor went underground as the NIMBYS would block an elevated route...
High speed trains on NEC would require brand new dedicated right away with no freight or commuter trains interference and that ain’t gonna happen in my life time.
I was conductor on Acela Express trains for almost 15 years and I've never experienced a smooth ride by European standards. I just left Germany where I rode ICE and regional runs out of Frankfurt and Berlin. Now those rides are what I call smooth. The TGV is smooth, but not the bumpy and jerky jerky Acelas that have passengers and crews holding on for dear life.
@@samtrak1204, all of that aside, Acela is still an impressive achievement for North America, so I'm not going to be putting it down like a lot of people usually do (I wish that we had a similar train on the main corridor between Windsor, Ontario and Quebec City, Quebec here in Canada.)
@@Neville60001 Hear hear! Everyone is constantly complaining about the Acela. But it _is_ actually a good and reasonably fast service by HSR standards. Most of the track mileage is at 125+mph and there is a ton of track at 130, 135, 140, and 145. It really isn't as bad as people are trying to make it out to be! The majority of Shinkansen services top out at 150mph too and very few go above 155mph. It's not like the Acela is particularly slow.
SAMTRAK you are an absolute legend!! You gave me a core memory when you let me give a station announcement and took me to the cab for my 9th birthday, my young self was BEAMING because of that thank you
I actually watched this while riding the Acela from New Haven to DC. Somehow I managed to snag a $71 fare for a train that takes almost an hour less than the NER to travel that distance
This (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IE3S6LwNWdY.html) is one of the earliest recordings of an Acela business class trip from the year 2000. It does contain video of the galley being used by attendants, so they must have used to do some kind of seat side service for business but stopped it in the past.
I love the train between Boston and DC, and have ridden that route many times over the years, sometimes on Acela. I don't go Acela unless I need to speed! But I do not recall ever having seat service on Acela Business Class (and I've never gone First).
William H Gray lll was a longtime member of the US Congress from Philadelphia. A bill was passed to name the station for him. Years went by before the name was actually applied, only after picketing and threats of legal action. As of October 2022 three Alstom Acela consists are parked outside 30th St Station and a fourth has been outshopped by Alstom in upstate New York. Anyone but me think the current Acela fleet should be repurposed to be the next Izy or OuiGo, replacing select Northeast Regional trips? Not all MARC Penn Line trips end at Baltimore. Several weekday trips go to Perryville at the Susquehanna Bridge and some weekend trips go to Martin State Airport northeast of Baltimore.
While MARC may be running diesels under overhead electric lines, MARC also runs over tracks without overhead electric lines. MARC chose to buy one locomotive for all of their routes.. Single sourcing reduces maintenance costs significantly...
@@OnkelPHMagee Its the same situation with the MBTA in Boston with diesels running under overhead electric lines... The MBTA also runs on non electrified routes as well.. MARC and MBTA are not commuter railways in Paris...
Heyo o/ local spotter from Baltimore. Our MARC trains go as far north as Perryville, which is at the north end of the susquehanna bridge, which is the northernmost terminus. Hopefully we will expand north to Willmington DE ^^ Also the reason our trains are diesel, is because the two other lines (both ex B&O) are owned by CSX and doesnt allow for electrficication. Not to nitpick really, just want to give some more info on MARC. But! if you do another vid on MARC on either of its other two lines feel free to let me know, id love to set aside some time to capture some passing shots and recordings ^^
30th Street! I can't believe you traveled to Philly! The station is simply beautiful inside and out. On top of that. It's so efficient and easy to navigate. There is no question where your track is and how to get to it. It's all laid out so perfectly a five year old could figure it out.
Fancy seeing those HHP-8s. I have one as a model. Why I don't really know (although it was cheap and it looked pretty), but then I felt compelled to collect a Silver Meteor/Star, and it stopped being cheap.
A couple comments about this... The old tunnel in Baltimore as well as a number of old bridges are scheduled for replacement by modern standards under President Biden's infrastructure bill which of course the Republicans opposed. So in a decade or so we'll finally be able to have high speed rail in the Northeast US. As far as the prices are concerned remember that most of the people riding on that train are doing so on expense account.
The infrastructure bill is great and it will help finance quite a few important upgrades but the tunnles received frderal financig before the bill was passed, also hy the Biden administration. As for the speed, it will be 100 mi/h (160 km/h) which is sufficient given the fact that trains stop before/after the tunnles.
The first generation Acela is a very heavy train, much more so than the replacement Avelia Liberty and European trains. It's so heavy that wheel wear is a constant issue and requires constant maintenance. It has tilt control but Amtrak never uses it. it still runs at the same speed as the regional train except in certain areas like between Baltimore and Wilmington and between Westerly and Providence where it goes to 150 mph. These day's it is showing it's age. The Avelia LIberty will be a welcome replacement.
About the Acels prizes, tickets, food and other stuff, if the high prizes more profit for amtrak, them being able to break even, pay off debt, and raise capital for infrastructure improvement, then i'd be more than happy to pay more, if the government don't pay amtrak, biden now had, and the infrastructure. Also, Amtrak needs to milk their only substantially profitable route as much as possible, to pay for the unprofitable ones, which they must run, so all in all, it's fine, and also america on a buisness line, people have the money.
to be clear almost all diesel trains running under electric tracks are because it will leave the electrified area at some point. i only know of NJT and MTA for grand central to have fully hybrid trains
Upgrade the Washington DC to NY Penn Section using the new Baltimore Tunnels and Perryville, MD Susqueannah River bridge then use LGV France Technology under 11kv 25hz max speed is now 260-265 kmh (160-165 mph) like the Trenton-New Brunswick, NJ section which is now 260-265 kmh (160-165 mph) capable. Then repeat the same upgrade to Providence Boston max speed is increased to 260 kmh (160 mph) from 240 kmh (150 mph)
Amtrak is buying new Siemens locomotives and coaches to replace Amtrak's regional services in the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast services. The Acelas have reached their end of lives and will soon be discarded and most likely scrapped...
@@ronclark9724 The trainsets are leased. So it’s up to Bombardier Rail (now Alstom) to figure out what they want to do with the sets. They might let Amtrak keep it or they might sell for scrap. Who knows. The trains are only 20 years old. Which is old, but not in Amtrak’s terms.
Great trip. I'm bit curious, is Amtrak have cross subsidize regulations for it's low demand route to keep it running? If yes, that's bit logical if they set higher fare for profitable route like in Northeast Regional, especially in their flagship train.
Amtrak's fares are like the rest of the travel/hospitality industry, DYNAMIC. The fuller the train the higher the fare. Amtrak as a whole is just one national subsidy. Without the nationwide long distance trains there would be no Amtrak on the NEC as there would NOT be enough political support in Congress to sustain just the NEC... As it is the Texas congressional congregation is very upset Amtrak does not have a daily service in Houston, much less a daily service from Dallas to Houston, two of the six largest metros in America. Where is that Amtrak train running the former Burlington Texas Zephyr route from Houston thru Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Colorado Springs, and to Denver? This long distance train would provide that Dallas to Houston daily service. Keep in mind Texas has the second largest state population in this nation... With just a few more million illegal immigrants landing in Texas, Texas maybe first before long...
@@ronclark9724 That's not exactly right, because Amtrak would not need a subsidy to begin with if they didn't have to pay for the massively money-losing long-distance trains. All the long-distance trains lose massive amounts of money. Some of them lose over $400 per ticket per trip! Just before the pandemic, Amtrak was near breakeven and none of that money was made on the long-distance trains. It was all money made on the NEC and the state intercity trains like Amtrak California and Amtrak Midwest. Congress does not let Amtrak cancel those routes regardless of the size of the subsidy. It's not like Amtrak is getting yearly subsidies for each specific route. They are caught between a rock and a hard place being forced to run money-losing long-distance trains and having to subsidize those from the profitable NEC and intercity routes.
Yes, that's basically the case. The NEC and the state intercity services is where Amtrak makes most of the money to subsidize the money-burning long-distance services. Amtrak nearly broke even just before the pandemic hit, so we know that without the long-distance services Amtrak is actually pretty profitable.
I love our beautiful 30th Street Station!! The old Metroliners offered at seat meal service in First Class. Not sure why the Acela First Class doesn't. For the high price it should be included. Thank you Thibault for a very informative review😀😀💚💚
It's really unfortunate that the Northeast Corridor will never truly have high speed rail throughout the lines. One thing I read a long time ago is that in order to have more miles of straight rail, they would have had to take property by eminent domain. Although I do agree that a lot of the infrastructure is very outdated. It's too bad, because I would really like to experience a true high speed ride from Boston to DC.
Actually a lot of the line from D.C. to New York is straight. Like really straight surprisingly. It’s just the old bridges and tunnels at this point that really need replacement in order to speed up service. Old catenary has also been slowly getting replaced increasing the speed of tracks on the route. The only place I think really needs a realignment is Easter Connecticut. That shore line route is really curvy. If they can push the route a little more inland, that would be perfect.
Yeah, that's not really true. Most of the track mileage on the NEC that the Acela runs on is already at 125+mph. (You can check an NEC speed chart to verify.) And Amtrak just got a bunch of money from the Infrastructure Bill to upgrade the sections that are at 125+mph to 160mph for the new Avelia trains. The NEC really isn't as bad as all of these people are trying to say it is. It's not the fastest corridor, but it ain't slow either. We should continue investing in it. It's the best starter corridor we'll ever get!
In the early days of Acela I rode this same train, leaving Boston at 05:00. When I boardef the train in the 125th St station, three Amtrak attendants greeted me. My coat was taken by one, the second took my breakfast order and the third took my bag. The food was complimentary and coffee was endlessly poured. Nowadays, the car attendants are often surly. For true luxury travel go first class on the AutoTrain.
I think the Federal Government is actually investing money in updating the NEC tunnel bottlenecks around Balitmore's Penn Station. It's a big project but good lord is it going to be nice not getting slowed down to the 30MPH on Acela. Should serve to shave even more time off of that trip from Philly to DC (a personal favorite route of mine). NEC is old, and slow, but crawling towards getting better. Plus the new Avelia Liberty trainsets are so pretty and modern looking, can't wait to give them a ride.
Wish the new avelia liberty trains had stayed with the dark blue, black, and red colorscheme from the trailer/promo vid, but hey, it's just a design and my preference, the light blue and ehite scheme is fine too.
the only times I’ve booked the Acela are when the NY-DC ticket is around $60 with the student discount or the equivalent pricing tier and the Regional ends up being more expensive since it’s more popular and fills up faster. Unless you can get a ticket for that low of a price I’d say that yes the Acela is massively overpriced but Amtrak needs to turn a profit somewhere so it can fund its long-distance trains (bad attitude towards passenger rail but Amtrak is unfortunately forced into that position). Also the Northeast Regional from NY to DC can be as low as $26 with the student discount so that’s an insane deal.
I was on a NYP-BOS Acela in September in first. I liked it and the new first class lounge in NYP was very nice. The staff onboard the train mentioned that their training was pushed back to 2024 for the new sets. They also mentioned that they have dwindling sets to keep the service levels they have. They have been having to pick parts of of OOS cars to keep the sets going. Like you, on my trip down to New York my tray table did not work.
@@dsmtgaming1763, really? That's a sit-down meal in a _first class_ train; I'd expect it to cost a lot. When you Pinoys have a train like Acela running in the Philippines, _then_ you can talk; until then, please stop blathering about the food cost (and no, food in the USA _isn't_ expensive compared to here in Canada.)
@@Neville60001 ur talking as if you americans have a high speed rail with good first class seats and service when you don’t until then, don’t side with over priced food prices for a train which doesn’t even go more than 300 kmph
@@dsmtgaming1763, I'm _not_ American, and the prices charged are most likely commiserate with what you'd be charged on a first class train in the U.S. anyway.
Nice and informative video, as usual. I do agree that the Acela is overpriced and overhyped . In my stretch of the NEC it is marginally better than the NE Regional Service; and it is not more comfortable than the regional service , as you pointed out in your video. IMO it is not worth it.
The US has good trains. The reason most people don’t realize this is because they don’t understand the purpose of trains in America. Most people in the world are from Europe and Asia and think that trains in America are so bad because they don’t get you from A to B very well. In America, on Amtrak’s long-distance trains, people pay for the experience and offers of taking a train and are specifically on a rail trip, not always JUST getting from A to B. If someone was only going from A to B they would take a plane. Most people don’t properly appreciate or understand the US rail network.
Well said. I've noticed dozens of other comments and people that dont even live in America and complain about its fastest trains. They need to understand that the railroads weren't built for speed originally.
HSR no matter how fast the train loses the market share competition with the airlines in a journey of around three hours. Outside of Amtrak's NEC with several large metros with the most density the rest if America's major cites are a train journey of more than three hours, a lot more. Even Acela's journey from Boston to Washington DC is nearly seven hours, not anywhere near three hours. I doubt whether anyone living in the UK or France or Germany can do a single HSR train journey beyond three hours without making connections with another HSR train...
@@transitcaptain Maybe several minutes at best, if that. Simply put Amtrak is going about as fast as it can go on the NEC considering the old winding right of way, old bridges, and old tunnels. Many of the bridges turn or lift to allow shipping to cross, something Amtrak is not addressing anytime soon...
@@tropicalsimonthirty2283 considering that there _were_ fast trains in the U.S. in the '30's and '40's that broke speed records for steam-powered trains, what you said about the U.S. not being able to have HSR is a load of bullcrap, and then some.
On Amtrak as you know, price varies dynamically from train to train and how long before the journey you buy. You cannot use the ticket for another train - it is specific for that train. For example, I am booked to go to New York for a week around the Thanksgiving holidays (November 24th in 2022 - possibly the busiest time for travel in the US because among other things kids coming to their parents' from college). The fare going to New York (240 miles - just over 380 kms.) is USD121 and for the return trip is USD71 or 25 US cents per km. The three hour travel time each way on Acela (vis-a-vis more than 3 hours and 40 minutes and often cutely delayed by another 15 minutes on the Regional trains) is also perfect for me having driven that stretch for hundreds of trips when I was younger, with more than 12 lovely travel plazas one after another on this corridor when you can pull out and back in to the highway with minimal delays other than the time spent in the plaza having a leisurely coffee or fantastic variety of fast food at US prices. By the way, the luxurious old pitch of the Regionals is being replaced by airline style pitches because Amtrak for some reason thinks it is competing with planes but, in reality, it is with very nice buses. The other difference on the Regional with Acela is that passengers on Regional in general go shorter distances (for example from DC to go to an airport near Baltimore or from Newark airport to NYC) and are with small kids plus huge amount of luggage for a vacation somewhere, compared to kind of people you see on Acela who are coming to DC or going to NYC for dealing with the Government or business reasons (and possibly the company buying the ticket at a short notice and everything, including that salad and coffee, is tax deductible).
The vast majority of HSR services compete with air travel and are market-priced, like a plane ticket. That's perfectly normal for an unsubsidized service. That's how HSR usually works in other countries.
Which countries do you have in mind about the unsubsidized HSR part? Spain, China (say the trip to Tibet or the overall network), Saudi Arabia? It's not rail travel I'm talking about but HSR with all its wear and tear with never ending costs and cost overruns. A lower speed would have competed with air travel just as same at a much lower cost? The English HSR between London and Birmingham is projected to cost USD5 Billion (yes big B) for a minute (i.e. per minute of trip time saved) saved and I'm wondering where they could have used the money better. But don't look at me for answers: I just know the NYC to Washington DC sector rather well having taken hundreds of trips on bus, car, train, and plane (sometimes a mix even) over the last forty years. At this stage of my life, Acela making the trip at 80 mph average speed and the cost of USD 100 works because of convenient subway connection at both ends. Try that on China's Maglev (Shanghai) line at the city end.
@@surajitgoswami1871 The problem is that auto and air travel is subsidized more and is more expensive to subsidize per trip. But the largest financial cliff with airports is that at some point you just can't keep adding terminals and have to build a whole new airport. That is an insanely high cost. That's why HSR is so popular around the world. It requires fewer subsidies than auto or air travel, and it can be scaled a lot easier by adding more lines or simply more tracks to existing rights of way. You can't do that with airports. You have to built an entire new airport with a ton of extra capacity that you don't even get to use for a few decades until you reach airport capacity again and you have to build another one. Transportation is absolutely always subsidized. And it always was subsidized! Ask the ancient Romans how much of their imperial road investment they ever got back!
@@TohaBgood2 Yes, when air traffic reaches that volume (like it did it in Japan), or even half for the sake of argument, investing in HSR is worth the price. However, one could just invest in non-HSR rail as well. I was amazed (again after 36 years of my first visit to the country) at the Swiss system that seems to "pace" at the right speed. HSR done, without first considering the volume of air-traffic and/or non-HSR improvements, is often a folly. I love trains having travelled by trains hauled by gigantic steam locomotives as a boy in India. To see (on RU-vid videos) a system developed by the British still functioning in a difficult economic situation, as in Pakistan today, is the clearest sign of things done right more than a century ago. Neither do I complain, when I see a system waking up to the cost of running it, by introducing competition as in the case of the Madrid to Barcelona HSR. Recently, to my surprise, I found out it was more convenient and pleasant (with convenient escalators, all working, and not having to haul oneself up, with 35 pounds of luggage in backpack and hand luggage, as is often the case in NYC) to use a bus, metro, train combination, none of which moved at any great speed but just well-coordinated.
@@surajitgoswami1871 That's all true. But the problem is that almost 100% of US rail was basically donated to private companies when they all went bankrupt in the 60s-70s. Even though most of that rail system was built with government subsidies and explicitly in exchange for running forever passenger service, we just let the private rail operators off the hook by transferring all passenger service covenants to Amtrak. This means that there is a hard limit on how much you can improve passenger rail in the US before you bump into freight rail opposition. And they have extremely good lobbyists who will help prevent the government from doing anything that the rail companies don't like. We've been dong a ton of upgrades to existing operations, but it just isn't enough and future expansions are already getting blocked. This means that improving passenger rail in the US past what the freight companies will allow can only take one of two forms: buying disused existing freight rail track, or building new rail rights of way exclusively for passenger operations. And if you're building new track, it's pretty crazy not to build it to HSR standards. We'll likely only get one shot per corridor, so it needs to count.
I enjoyed my Acela trip NYC-DC, but felt at times we were travelling too quickly for the infrastructure. Your comment about bumpy/smooth made me remember
So is Business Class on these equivalent to normal standard or second class, or are there three levels, First, Business and Plebeian, like on airlines?
Cool Video, I've Ridden The Acela 3 Times In My Life. Also, If You're Really Lucky You Might See CSX, Because They Also Use The Corridor. TBH, I'm Kind Of Meh On Both The ALC-42 And Avelia Liberty Trainsets. Finally, I Hate The Avelia's Horn Though, Well Actually, I Don't Hate It, But It's NOT One I'd Choose For A Train Operating In The U.S.
Oh, come on! 😁I know that this is your "neighborhood" HSR service and that you want it to get better fast. But it really isn't that bad! We'd kill for an Acela in the Bay Area! And the Acela really is about to get a lot better with the new Avelia trains and $40+ billion in upgrades! 😁
I quite like those trains. Maybe President Joe Biden should pay for a new high speed rail line to be built from New York City to Los Angeles and to go through the notorious “Tornado Alley” by going through it. Or building a tunnel to make the new high speed rail line lot safer when there are tornadoes happening.
Andrew, a NYC-L.A. _could_ be built, but it would have to be maglev trains (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev ) that run on it, as a standard steel-rail HSR train trip between both cities would take ten hours.
@@Andrewjg_89, only _if_ it could be built; as I've said elsewhere on another video, the emoprogressives that want a faster Northeast Corridor (the other video's about how freight rail in the U.S. is actually _not_ as good as its defenders say) aren't willing to do the _work_ of building a coalition of _voters_ (for the Democratic party, and *_ONLY_* for the Democratic party) that would generate the political groundswell for such a line to be built between both cities. As for the bitching about this route and the train that runs on it, Americans should be thankful they have it and it was built (we here in Canada haven't even got _one_ HSR line built in both of the corridors that could support one, or even a nationwide one similar to a New York/Los Angeles line [e.g. a Toronto/Vancouver maglev to supplant the current Toronto/Vancouver line known as the Canadian that's a three-day land cruise]) and that more are in the building (CAHSR-California High-Speed Rail, being built but with delays due to neocon NIMBYism), Texas Central (same problem with NIMBY's keeping the project from even starting due to said NIMBY's using the courts to delay it) and last but not least, Brightline Industries' Los Angeles/Las Vegas plan for a HSR line between both cities (not as great as the proposed maglev project floated in the early 2000's, IMHO, but still a good idea and project), instead of constantly complaining about how it isn't really as fast as other HSR in Asia and Europe (although I will admit the food does need to be better.)
These acela's are so old and outdated they're basically holding together by tape and zip ties. A lot of parts for the train are no longer being made in prep. for the new acela which is now pushed back again. The acela, is one huge overhyped waste of space machine. Some regional coach cars have updated interiors that look a lot better than the acela's. There's always "technical delays" due to the antiquated tech on board the power cars. Always a glitch or a hiccup. Until there's a dedicated rail for high speed, we will never see a true high speed train in our lifetime in the states. These trains need to be on their own dedicated track but you can't change the infrastructure these days. The cost is too high and the time it would take would be insane. The new acela's are a lot nicer, the seats don't recline which sucks but they have this floating foot rest that slides out from the bottom of the chair... Sadly the US is way, way behind in standards for the railroad compared to europe.
Took Acela business class from New York to DC earlier this year and wasn’t impressed at all. Like you mentioned the in the video, portions of the track can get downright turbulent, to the point where the train feels like it’s going to fly off of the tracks. Not smooth at all. Train sets are also showing their age with plenty of creaks and jitters to keep you alert. Bathrooms were also embarrassingly bad. The train was full, though! So that’s a good sign. Still a lot of improvements to be made, though.
