Acela: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:06, 5 September 2003

Revision as of 23:04, 11 September 2003

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'''Acela''' is the name used by [[Amtrak]] for many of their [[train]]s in the northeastern part of the United States.

It is often used to refer to only the [[high-speed train]]s which run between [[Boston]] and [[Washington, DC|Washington]] and [[Boston]] via [[New York, New York|New York]] and [[Philadelphia]], although these are more properly referred to as '''Acela Express''' as there also exist [[Acela Regional]] trains.

Thanks to recent improvements to railroad infrastructure, the trains have become much faster; one can travel between Boston and New York in under four hours. This fact, combined with the convenience of the train as opposed to air travel after [[September_11_Terrorist_Attack|September 11]], has led Amtrak to capture nearly half of the market share of travelers between [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] and [[New York, New York|New York City]].

Acela Express trains reach a top speed of 150160 [[mph]] only on one 18-mile stretch of track (High speed rail is usually defined as over 200 [[kph]], or about 125 mph). The average speed of the train in practice is below 110 mph.

Seats on the Acela Express are colored blue; the interior is largely white and brightly lit; there are tables in the first-class section, while other cars are business-class and include a car in which talking on [[cell phones]] is banned. Acela Regional trains use [[rolling stock]] that closely resembles the [[Penn Central]] [[Metroliner]] cars of the late 1960s.