Acela Express

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Image:Acelalogo.jpg Image:Acela express 1 copyright Cian Ginty.JPG Acela Express (often called simply Acela, leading to early confusion with the Acela Regional) is the name used by Amtrak for the 20 high-speed tilting trains that run between Washington, D.C. and Boston via New York City and Philadelphia along the Northeast Corridor in the Northeast United States The tilting design allows an increase in speed versus conventional trains when running through the many curves of the Northeast Corridor, making Acela Express trains the only true high-speed trainsets in the country. This has made the trains very popular, and by some reckoning, Amtrak has captured nearly half of the market share of travelers between Boston and New York.

The Acela name was announced in 1999, and was originally intended as a rebranding of most of Amtrak's Northeast services, forming three levels - Acela Express, Acela Regional and Acela Commuter. Due to confusion between the lower-speed Acela Regional trains and the Acela Express—as the name is (intentionally) evocative of acceleration—the Acela branding was removed from what is now the Regional service in 2003.

1 The need for speed
2 Acela Express outages
3 Attributes and amenities
4 Station stops
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

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The need for speed

Template:NEC Image:Acela at Boston.jpg The dense population of the Northeastern United States makes the Northeast Corridor the most heavily-traveled portion of the American passenger rail system. Two-thirds of rail passengers in the United States live in New York City, also home to the nation's busiest rail passenger terminal, Penn Station. In order to compete with airliners, Amtrak needed to increase the speed of trains in the region. However, the former Shore Line, from New Haven to Boston is burdened by sharp turns that prevented regular trains from achieving high speeds. There was little support for building an entirely new railway as had been done for France's TGV and Germany's ICE.

In October 1994, Amtrak requested bids from train manufacturers who could design railroad cars that could negotiate the crowded system at up to 150 miles per hour (241 km/h). A joint project set up by Bombardier (75%) and Alstom (25%) was selected for the project in March 1996. The tilting design was used to compensate for the track's curvature and ensure that passengers would remain comfortable at higher speeds than a conventional train could safely achieve on the same tracks.

High-speed service was originally expected in 1999, but various problems appeared. The trains were four inches (about 10 cm) too wide and, as a result, were unable to achieve the speeds originally intended. After a series of delays, the first Acela Express service began on December 11, 2000.

With the completion of electrification between New Haven and Boston, all trains on the line have become faster; one can travel between Boston and New York in just over three and a half hours (an improvement of half an hour). New York to Washington runs take about two and three-quarters hours. These schedules, as well as the relative convenience of rail as opposed to air travel especially after September 11, 2001, have made the Acela Express competitive with the Northeast air shuttles.

High-speed rail is usually defined as traveling faster than 200 km/h, or about 125 mph. The highest speed attained by Acela Express is 150 mph (241 km/h) on two sections of track in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, which total 18 miles (29 km). There are also many miles of track, especially north of New Haven, that have been upgraded to 110 mph and 125 mph (177 km/h and 201 km/h). South of New York, Acela Express is limited to 135 mph (217 km/h) with many stretches of 125 mph (201 km/h). Although the track is straight enough to allow 150 mph (241 km/h) in several areas here, the overhead catenary support system was constructed during the Great Depression. As such, it does not have the constant-tension features of the new catenary east of New Haven, and it cannot support running speeds over 135 mph (217 km/h). The slowest section of the electrified NEC is the portion owned by the Connecticut and New York State Departments of Transportation between New Haven and New Rochelle. Trains here are limited to only 90 mph (145 km/h) on a four-mile (6-km) stretch in New York State. Between the New York State Line and New Haven, maximum speeds are only 75 mph (120 km/h) as tilting is not allowed on CDOT/NYDOT territory.

Although the design of the trains, with identical 8,000 horsepower power cars at each end, evokes France's TGV, the only component directly derived from the TGV is its triple current (25 kV 60 Hz, 12.5 kV 60 Hz, 11 kV 25 Hz) electric motor. The tilting carriages are based upon Bombardier's earlier LRC trains rather than the TGV's articulated trailers, and the locomotives and passenger cars are much heavier than those of the TGV in order to meet North America's different approach to crash standards. (The Tier II crash standards, adopted in 1999, have also resulted in the passenger cars being designed without steps and trapdoors, which means that the trainsets can only serve stations with high-level platforms — this restricts them to the Northeast Corridor and makes them impractical for most of the rest of the USA.) Bombardier have since used the Acela Express's carriage design and a non-electric variant of its locomotive for their experimental JetTrain.

The scheduled transit time for the 5:00 a.m. departure from Washington, D.C. arriving in Boston's South Station on Acela Express service is roughly 6 hours 36 minutes. Subtracting a fifteen minute scheduled layover in New York City, the average speed is 68 mph (109 km/h) for the 450 mi (720 km) trip. For the 250 mi (400 km) journey between Washington, D.C. and New York's Penn Station, the transit time is 2 hours 48 minutes, an average speed of 89 mph (143 km/h).

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Acela Express outages

Image:Acela2007.jpg In August 2002, shortly after their introduction, Acela Express trainsets were briefly removed from service when the brackets that connected truck (bogie) dampers to the powerunit carbodies ("yaw dampers") were found to be cracking. The trains were returned to service when a program of frequent inspections was instituted. The damper brackets have since been redesigned and the old brackets replaced with the newer design.

On April 15, 2005, Acela Express trains were again removed from service when cracks were found in the disc brakes of most of the passenger coaches. The Bombardier-Alstom consortium replaced the discs under warranty. Limited service resumed in July 2005, as a portion of the fleet operated with new brake discs. Metroliner trains, which the Acela Express was intended to replace, filled in during the outage. Amtrak announced on September 21, 2005 that all 20 trainsets had been returned to full operation.

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Attributes and amenities

Seats on the Acela Express are colored blue; the interior is largely white and brightly lit with large windows; there are tables in the first-class section, while other cars are business-class and include a "quiet car" in which talking on cell phones is banned and the lights are sometimes dimmed. A complimentary audio service is provided and there is beer on tap.

The trains can be identified in timetables by their four-digit train numbers in the 2000-series.

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Station stops

Image:Amtrak acela.png Acela trains stop at the following stations. Stations served by all trains are bolded. For details on connections, and other trains which make more local stops, see Northeast Corridor.