Last week I took the 10:00 a.m. Acela from New York to Washington. The ride was enjoyable. It was also pricey.
We were about 15 minutes late leaving New York because one of the automated doors would not close. An Amtrak maintenance guy had to be called to fix it. It could not have been too much of a problem, i.e. he fixed it in less than five minutes, but I had to chuckle a bit about automation. It is great until it is not. Having departed from Penn Station, New York, thousands of times, I don’t recall ever having a stuck manual door.
I made the mistake of not grabbing a seat in the quite car, although they were pretty well taken by the time I was able to board the train. Thus, I got the opportunity to listen to numerous people in my car shout into their cell phones, especially between New York and Philadelphia. Mercifully, most of them got off at 30th Street Station.
The train appeared to have a pretty good load factor from New York to Philadelphia. However, south of Philly the load factor was much thinner.
My car rode relatively rough. I was a bit surprised. Several days before travelling from New York to Washington I had taken the Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to New York. It clips along at near Acela speeds between Philadelphia and New York. I was in business class; the car rode much better than the Acela coach that I was in.
Had I taken the 10:35 a.m. Northeast Regional Train to Washington, it would have taken me 38 minutes longer to get there than was the case on the Acela. The Acela fare was $162. The fare on the regional would have been $49 in coach or $88 had I chosen business class. The incremental minutes gained on the Acela were pricey. The cost between the Acela and coach on the regional train would have been $2.97 per minute or $1.95 per minute for the difference between the Acela and business class on a regional train.
Answering your question, Amtrak charges what the market will bear. I doubt any of us on this forum would ever pay full price for a First Class seat on Acela or a Business Class seat on the Regional but these cars are always full. I didn’t think it was worth paying adult fare for a kid on Acela but I see kids all the time on Acela.
The market is speaking.
As for the ride, my recent trip on the NEC was very rough. The weather and “the economy” might have a hand in that.
Speaking of weather, Acela has been totally cancelled since Saturday and the Regional won’t go north of NYC.
I am so cheap, my choice is Metropark-Trenton on NJT, Trenton-Philly on SEPTA. You are talking about going all the way to DC? Who needs to go to DC, anyway?
Seriously, now, about that rough riding. The intuitive notion is that the track is in need of maintenance.
The track alignment and compliance (its springy-ness) are factors. But there are two other important factors, each of which involves the train car. One factor is the cone taper of the wheel-rail interface, and wear of either the rail or the wheels or both can make ride at speed deteriorate. Fixing the wheels requires wheel grinding, and fixing the rails requires rail grinding. In other words, the track geometry can be fine, but if the rail has a worn profile – bad ride. The second factor involving the train car is the compliance of the suspension. The British experience (BR were masters of cutting corners on car maintenance and watching ride quality go bad at speed) indicates that as trucks wear and bushings loosen, things can go bad.
Do you suppose an Acela is kept as a unit train set and hence every car in a consist is on the same wheel grinding schedule? One think that would satisfy my curiosity about y’all riding Amtrak out there is whether a bad ride is specific to one or more cars or whether it is uniform throughout a consist, The second question was how was the ride at low speed – was it bad across all speeds, or did it start getting bad at speed.
I have mentioned this before, but my Poppa told me that when the opened the Shinkansen line in Japan, maintenance crews would go out at night and tweak the gauge and alignment of the rail line, and the train cars went into the car barn every night for a touch-up wheel grind. Don’t know if they require such a rigorous maintenance now. The one time I rode the Shinkansen, my impression was the ride was rock-solid smooth going through the outskirts of Toyko, where I was told the
Whether the Acela is worth the money depends on your perspective and pocket book. The was my second ride on the Acela. The first was from Philadelphia to New York a year or so ago. It was worth it, but I don’t believe that I would do it again.
I worked for an electric utility for most of my career. My company would have frowned on using the Acela for the marginal saving in time at a significant incremental increase in cost. However, many firms are not as cost sensitive as utility companies. Moreover, there are heaps of people in the Northeast who can afford the Acela. In fact, I noticed that the first class car was nearly 3/4s full. Some of the passengers looked too young be be travelling on an expense account.
I am so cheap, my choice is Metropark-Trenton on NJT, Trenton-Philly on SEPTA. You are talking about going all the way to DC? Who needs to go to DC, anyway?
Seriously, now, about that rough riding. The intuitive notion is that the track is in need of maintenance.
The track alignment and compliance (its springy-ness) are factors. But there are two other important factors, each of which involves the train car. One factor is the cone taper of the wheel-rail interface, and wear of either the rail or the wheels or both can make ride at speed deteriorate. Fixing the wheels requires wheel grinding, and fixing the rails requires rail grinding. In other words, the track geometry can be fine, but if the rail has a worn profile – bad ride. The second factor involving the train car is the compliance of the suspension. The British experience (BR were masters of cutting corners on car maintenance and watching ride quality go bad at speed) indicates that as trucks wear and bushings loosen, things can go bad.
Do you suppose an Acela is kept as a unit train set and hence every car in a consist is on the same wheel grinding schedule? One think that would satisfy my curiosity about y’all riding Amtrak out there is whether a bad ride is specific to one or more cars or whether it is uniform throughout a consist, The second question was how was the ride at low speed – was it bad across all speeds, or did it start getting bad at speed.
I have mentioned this before, but my Poppa told me that when the opened the Shinkansen line in Japan, maintenance crews would go out at night and tweak the gauge and alignment of the rail line, and the train cars went into the car barn every night for a touch-up wheel grind. Don’t know if they require such a rigorous maintenance now. The one time I rode the Shinkansen, my impression was the ride was rock-solid smooth going through the o
There is cheaper yet! From Trenton to Phila: NJT Riverline to PATCO Hi-Speed Line to SEPTA Market St Subway (or subway surface streetcars)
Where Acela might earn it’s keep is for business travelers whose work produces several hundred dollars per hour of value for their companies. (not what they are PAID, but the worth of their work) The old rule of thumb used to be that the value of the work needed to be several times salary to be worth keeping the person around.
So, 30 minutes savings might be worth more than extra cost for the ticket.
Alright, already, alright! “Cheap” was a “cheap” joke.
Seriously, now, just because NJT/SEPTA is cheaper to the customer for people with time to spend doesn’t necessarily mean it is cheaper to society. All of the services, the commuter included, are subsidized, so a lower fare for one service doesn’t necessarily means a proportionately lower cost to provide.
I also know we had this discussion about one-seat rides, but NY-Philly is a different kind of corridor than NY-DC. Perhaps the Acela is particularly expensive NY-Philly to encourage use of the Regional or Commuter options on that shorter leg, but if someone wants to pay for the Acela, it is available.
This also brings up the subject of running the Florida trains into NY. Hypothetically speaking, just hypothetically, could Amtrak simply provide Acela Business Class passage to Silver Service passengers to DC, and in DC they could have an across-platform transfer to the LD train to Florida? That could save the effort and money of 125 MPH baggage cars; could it allow Superliner cars on the Florida trains, or does DC have height restrictions?
And DC is a fine, fine city and our Nations Capital, and I have visited the Mall with its awe inspiring monuments several times.
Gotta be careful here, timing of Acela may be only a few minutes against a Regional train but how many more minutes against a plane downtown to downtown? And the price comparison against a plane rather than agains Regional train. But you do underscore the hype about high speed rail in that it is being overstated for less than business class travel.
There are severe dimensional restrictions on equipment passing through the tunnels that permit Southbound trains to depart Washington Union Station … The Capitol Limited, being Westbound does not use these tunnels. The VRE double deck commuter cars are designed with the clearance restrictions in mind, the Superliners are not.
Have ridden the Acela five times and enjoyed it. But there is the issue of luggage! We travel with two and a half suitcases and the Amfleet coaches have some rear seats removed, so bags can be stored. Acela’s design doesn’t provide for larger suitcases. The typical Acela passenger travels light.
BaltACD: i RODE 2 different Cardinals from WASH - CHI to stop in Huntington. They were Superliners but cannot remember when. The 1st ave tunnels were redone [ unknown how ] sometime before that to enable Superliners. Cardinal went back to single level cars { rode them also } due to equipment lack and the need for many of its passengers to go beyond WASH - NYP. If service is ever improved to Florida maybe Superliners can run from WASH - FLORIDA
There are luggage storage towers at the end of each Acela car. If recall correctly, the front (or end) business class car has a larger luggage tower storage areas than the other business class cars. Yes, most Acela passenger don’t take large luggage with them and there is not as much open space as on a NE Regional, but there is space to storage luggage.