New trainsets have come to Amtrak for its Acela higher-speed service on the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The NextGen Acela trains manufactured by Alstom made their debut in a ceremonial run with trainset no. 14, which left Penn Station New York at 2:00 on Aug. 27, with intermediate stops at New Haven and Providence, and a scheduled arrival time at Boston’s South Station at 6:47. Amtrak called the first trip the “Acela-bration!”
New Trainsets at Last
Amtrak announced Aug. 7 that the new trainsets would be placed into revenue service on Aug. 28. The announcement proclaimed: “NextGen Acela is the all-new, premium ride from Amtrak, running between major city centers from Washington, D.C. to New York to Boston and destinations in between. Designed with innovative features and amenities, you can experience First Class and Business Class travel on America’s only high-speed rail service.” While Acela trains reach “high-speed rail” velocities of 150 mph for only about 40 miles of the 457-mile route, and 160 mph for a smaller portion, more of the run is accomplished at “high-performance rail” speeds, which are faster than those at which conventional trains operate.
Amtrak says that the top speed will be 160 mph, and there will 28 new trainsets, with 27% more capacity than the current Acela consists: 386 seats, compared to the 304 on the consists that will be replaced. In 2016, Amtrak said: “By adding 40% more trainsets than the current Acela Express fleet, we are providing you with more travel options. Upon delivery of the new trainsets, Acela Express service will be offered every half-hour between Washington, D.C. and New York City during peak times, and every hour between New York City and Boston throughout the day. This expanded fleet will give you even more departure options during peak travel times.” The new consists will replace the current fleet of 20 six-car sets.
The new equipment has been a long time coming, nine years in fact. It was 2016 that Joe Biden, then Vice President, announced a $2.45 billion package of federal loans to purchase the equipment and perform a few upgrades to the NEC. At the time, the new trainsets were expected to be phased in during 2021 and 2022. Now, four years after the original expected start date, the new equipment is entering service. Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono offered a preview of the new trainsets one week before service began. He described some of the technical difficulties that the project encountered, as well as a tour he took with Railway Age Publisher Jon Chalon of one trainset in at Philadelphia 30th Street Station. He gave the design high marks.
Amtrak touted the “U.S. Economic Impact” in a fact sheet distributed for the event. It notes that the new equipment uses “95% domestically sourced components” made by “180+ suppliers in 29 states” with “15,000 jobs that support manufacturing nationwide,” and that “1,200+ Alstom employees contributed to NextGen Acela” based on a 2020 economic analysis by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). U.S. companies “provided everything from the fleet’s public announcement systems to luggage racks, access doors, wheelsets and more. Thus, the legacy of the NextGen Acela program is not just the trains themselves. It is a revolution in the capacity and expertise of the U.S. rail manufacturing industry. And while they have a familial relationship with other Alstom products, they are different products in the same way our Siemens ACS-64 electric locomotives are different from their European cousins.”
First Day Revenue Schedule
I checked the schedule for Thursday, Aug. 28, the first day that the NextGen trains would run in revenue service. From New York to Boston, NextGen would leave at 10:02 AM and arrive at 1:55 PM, and 6:02 PM for a 9:58 PM arrival, both with a 3:53 running time). They would leave Boston at 5:55 AM for a scheduled arrival at 9:50, and 4:12 PM with a scheduled arrival at 8:01, with 3:55 and 3:49 running time, respectively. From New York to Washington, D.C., the new trains leave at 10:00 AM, scheduled to arrive at 1:00 PM for a 3:00 running time, and 8:12 PM, scheduled to arrive at 11:16, for a 3:04 running time. From Washington to New York, trains leave at 6:50 AM, scheduled arrival 9:50 AM and 2:50 PM, scheduled arrival 5:48 PM. All trains using the new equipment travel between Washington and Boston, with a running time within a few minutes of seven hours, end to end. That compares with conventional trains, which take about 75 to 90 minutes longer. Within a few minutes, the NextGen trains are scheduled for the same running time as other Acela trains, at least for now. Amtrak said it will “adjust schedules later, based on actual experience and as more of these trains are deployed.”
The Trainsets
In his Aug. 21 article, Vantuono described the consists for the new trains this way: “The 28 TGV-based trainsets will be phased into service through 2027, sharing duties with their now 25-year-old predecessor … The NextGen Acela is articulated, offers axle loads much lower than the first-generation equipment, and is equipped with Alstom’s Tiltronix active-tilt system. It also offers 27% higher passenger capacity … The power cars are constructed of carbon steel, the coaches of aluminum. The trainsets meet FRA Tier III ‘Passenger Equipment Safety Standards, Standards for Alternative Compliance and High-Speed Trainsets.’ Certified for operations at up to 186 mph (300 kph), they will operate at a maximum speed of 160 mph on the NEC.” There are nine articulated cars in the consist, with a café car at the center of the train.
What will happen to the first-generation Acela trainsets as these new units are placed in service? “Amtrak will decommission those trainsets per our current fleet decommissioning process, which includes disposing of the trainsets safely per all applicable regulations and allows for private organizations to acquire them,” Amtrak Senior Public Relations Manager Olivia Irvin told me.
A few of the NextGen trains are now on the rails and can be seen along the NEC. They are propelled by power cars at each end, sporting the elongated noses typically associated with high-speed rail (HSR) units in Europe or Asia, and identified only as NextGen Acela units. The cars themselves are sleek, sporting a red, white, and blue livery, although the blue is lighter than the color of the canton in the American flag. It gives the appearance of a fast train, much more so than the original Acela cars.
Opinions on passenger comfort will, of course, vary. Vantuono finds the seats “comfortable and supportive” and the design changes and materials from the original Acela “a marked improvement, very intuitive and high-tech.”
My take is a bit different, and bear in mind that my passenger train experiences date back to well before Amtrak’s arrival in 1971. To use an old expression, the seats are not “built for comfort,” even in the First Class car with 2-1 seating. Business Class seats are similar, in 2-2 configuration. There is no Coach Class. The upgraded Amfleet coach that a group of us rode from New Haven to New York seemed more comfortable, in part because of the softer and deeper cushioning of the seats on the older cars.
A rough measurement of the NextGen Acela seats showed that they are 22 inches wide, and the pitch (distance between rows) is 42 inches. There was a small footrest like some bus seats have, but there is not enough room to stretch legs, even though there is more apparent legroom without using the footrest, such as it is. The seats are fixed and do recline, albeit differently in that the seat cushion slides forward, bringing the bottom of the seatback with it. Vantuono says this feature “prevents a reclined seatback from intruding into the passenger space behind it—a much better design.”
Since the seats are fixed and don’t need to be turned—which Vantuono says “reduces moving parts and maintenance costs as well as the time needed to prep a trainset at the end of a run for a trip in the opposite direction”—half face “backwards,” always. Longtime New Jersey advocate Albert L. Papp, a civil engineer who is familiar with European equipment, said the design is a hybrid of Alstom’s AGV. The “half facing backward” configuration is standard for trains in Europe. To me, that does not necessarily mean that Americans will be as open to riding backwards for hours as riders in Europe.
The trainset has nine passenger cars, although “sections” might be a more appropriate term, because all the cars are articulated. (The power cars at either end are not). In essence, that means the consist is fixed. Seven sections are configured for Business Class, while a section at one end of the train (with a red exterior door instead of a white one) is First Class, a space where an attendant can arrange food to serve to passengers. The First Class car has 43 seats (including one accessible). There are 343 seats in Business Class (including seven accessible), for a total of 386 seats. Car 2 (or Business Class 1) has 39 seats, and the rest of the Business Class cars have 49 seats.
There is a café car in the middle of the train, but it is different from other such cars on Amtrak. Foods like sandwiches and salads are available in a refrigerated storage compartment, not unlike other food-service cars. The difference is that there is no seating, though there is a padded bar under the windows for “leaning.” The railroad tradition of having tables where riders can enjoy sips or snacks with fellow travelers and engage in conversation is not observed on the NextGen Acela trains.
Overall, the cars themselves to me do not seem to constitute an improvement in comfort or camaraderie over the older equipment. The congeniality of the café car tables is gone, the seats are stiff and not particularly comfortable, and half the riders must face backwards and look at where they have been, rather than where they are going, throughout the entire trip. Amtrak charges a premium fare on Acela trains, some exceeding $500. Trains using NextGen Acela equipment have the same fares as those using the predecessor equipment.
The Ride
Amtrak called the occasion an “Acela-bration” and the name fit. Amtrak employees, from high-level officials to lower-level managers, were on hand, and the Amtrak Board was represented. There were several reporters, some rider-advocates and a variety of other guests. Alstom was represented at a high level, too. The train was given a special number, 880. It was not particularly crowded, as a count between New York Penn Station and New Haven revealed 123 riders, including the crew and other Amtrak employees. Still, it was a special train, replete with conversation about the train, the occasion, the railroad, various technical subjects, and the understanding that NextGen trains are finally running.
The ride between Penn Station and New Haven was not a particularly fair test of the new equipment, because most of it took place on Metro-North, the slowest part of the NEC. The ride took about as long as Amtrak’s conventional trains to get from New York to New Haven and only a few minutes longer than it takes Metro-North to get there from Grand Central Terminal, even with all the stops east of Stamford. Still, the train did not ride particularly well, which was probably more a function of the track structure and its state of good repair. It was difficult to tell whether the tilting mechanism was in use, because speeds on Metro-North do not rise to the level of “high-performance” rail, so the tilting feature might not have been useful, under the circumstances. Nonetheless, the cars did not ride particularly smoothly, and it appeared that the ride in the Amfleet I cars on Train 55 (the Vermonter) was smoother over the same stretch of railroad.
While I and several others got off at New Haven to return to New York, Railway Age Publisher Jon Chalon got on there and rode to Providence, a segment that allows much faster running, with a tangent section containing 18 miles cleared for up to 160 mph. He told me about his impression of the ride: “The new Acela is unlike any other train in the U.S. The interior is elegant and feels very sophisticated. I felt like I was on a European or Asian high-speed train.” On the high-speed segment, “the train flies,” he said. “I clocked it on my iPhone at 155 mph. Bravo Amtrak and Alstom.”
A Train by Any Other Name?
The “Acela” brand is the successor to the Metroliner, the first high-performance trains in the NEC, which started running between New York and Washington, D.C. in 1969 under Penn Central with Budd Company electric multiple-units , continuing with Amtrak, transitioning to electric-locomotive-hauled Budd Amfleet coaches until the first-generation Acela debuted in the early 2000s. The northern portion of what is now the NEC to Boston was not electrified yet. When Amtrak was looking toward its new line of high-performance trains that would run between the Nation’s Capital and Boston, a New York consultant/branding firm came up with “Acela,” described as a combination of “acceleration” and “excellence”—two words seldom heard together. At the time, rider-advocates questioned the name, saying it was a synonym for “basement” (”a cellar”), pronounced with a Boston or New York City accent. Others said it sounded like “ascella,” Italian for “armpit.” Former Amtrak head David Gunn did not like the name either, but he didn’t change it.
Papp suggested Metroliner 21 to indicate the progression into the new century, but Amtrak did not take his suggestion. Vantuono also commented in his August 21 report, previously cited: “By the way, do you think it should be renamed Metroliner? I’ve always liked that name. It sounds more like a train …” This writer remembers Metroliner, too, and also likes that name.
There is also another alternative that has been proposed. Scott R. Spencer, Chief Operating Officer at AmeriStarRail, which wants to run more trains on the NEC and its branches than Amtrak does, has suggested “LibertyLiner 250” as an alternative proposal, perhaps even as an alternative that Amtrak could support. He also called for higher-speed trains with “triple-class service” that would include Coach passengers, along with Business and First Class. He told Railway Age: “When the Amtrak conductor yells ‘All Aboard,’ that should mean everybody, including coach passengers.” He also said the “250” in his proposal stands for not only the 250th anniversary of the country and the events connected with its founding and the War for Independence that took place in the region, but also for the 250 kph speed (actually 256 kph, which is equal to 160 mph).
In the meantime, Amtrak is moving forward with trains that will run under the NextGen Acela flag. They have a fast and snappy look, and Amtrak is counting on them to succeed with riders who are looking for an upscale rail travel experience on the country’s busiest stretch of passenger railroad.
