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Day 1: Acela Express Baltimore to Boston
The Acela Express. When most people from the northeast think of Amtrak, the Acela is what usually leaps to mind. Built by Bombardier, the Acela Express is Amtrak’s version of European trains like France’s TGV and runs between Washington, DC and Boston, Massachusetts.
I’ve ridden the Acela a number of times, since I live in Baltimore and often go to New York or Connecticut for business and family trips. You pay a premium to ride on the Acela, and while it’s not that much faster than your standard Amtrak Regional train (about 25 mins faster between Washington and New York, and about an hour faster between Washington and Boston), I’ve always felt that you’re paying for the atmosphere and the comfort of the ride: the clientele on the Acela is generally such that your chances of having Cheetos thrown at your head by a screaming, drooling tot are pretty low, and when it comes to ride smoothness, nothing else really comes close (the Acela actually banks to the side on turns and has a better suspension system than the regionals). The ride is so smooth, in fact, that there were a number of times that I could have sworn we were just crawling along at a snail’s pace, but when I glanced at my GPS unit, we were going 65 miles per hour. So, as a rule of thumb, if you think you’re going 10 miles per hour, you’re probably doing 40. If you think you’re moving along at 40, you’re probably going 70. And if it feels like 70, odds are you’re doing 150. It’s that drastic. The Acela also generally gets priority over other trains; case in point: there was track work in Stamford, Connecticut today and the Vermonter (which runs from Washington to St. Albans, VT) was directly in front of us. One of the two trains would have to stop and wait for the other to leave Stamford before the other could continue in. Even though the Vermonter was ahead of us, because we’re an Acela, we pulled around and passed the Vermonter just prior to Stamford and arrived and departed from the station first.
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I should probably also mention that I’m riding First Class today from Baltimore to Boston. I’m an Amtrak Guest Rewards Select Plus member, and one of the perks with that status are a few free upgrade coupons that I can use throughout the course of the year. First Class on the Acela, for a run from Baltimore to Boston, will generally run you around $100 on top of your base railfare (which can be anywhere from $137 to $222), so it’s not cheap. But, like First Class on an airline, you get pampered. Hot meals that are generally better than anything you’ll see on a plane. Free wine. Bigger seats that recline farther. Real china. Real glass glasses. A generally quieter crowd. You get the idea. For me, the real perks are the meals. Breakfast this morning (pictured below) was quite good. I had my choice between scrambled eggs, a fresh Belgian Waffle, or a Continental (fruit and cereal).
I had the eggs and a side of sausage links off the recommendation of a lady sitting behind me, and while the eggs reminded me a little of college (it’s that powder-egg thing I’ll always remember), they were quite good (although the sausage was better
The Acela isn’t without its problems, however. While it’s a fast train, it’s not as fast as it could be, primarily because of track infrastructure limitations. For example, there are only a few short stretches from Washington to Boston where the train actually goes 150 miles per hour. For much of the trip, you’re averaging between 60 and 80 miles per hour. The main reason for the speed limitations has to do with sharp curves in the track and congestion with other traffic on the line. France, by comparison, built a dedicated railroad for much of their TGV line, which afford much higher speeds and has a high number of straight stretches where the train can get up to speed and maintain that speed for a considerable amount of time. Some rail buffs have likened the Acela’s predicament to racing a Lamborghini on a dirt road with short stretches of highway.
So that’s it for now. We’ve just left New Haven, Connecticut and should be in Boston in just a few short hours. Stay tuned: video and more pictures to come later this evening!
In the meantime, feel free to send me an email with any questions or requests: rafi@coxnews.com.
-Rafi
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Acela Express
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By delivery man
September 26, 2007 11:43 PM | Link to this
Rafi, This really sounds like a cool trip! I hope you have a great time and I look forward to reading your blog entries. If your ever in LNK, look me up!
Al
By Uncle Alan
September 27, 2007 10:34 AM | Link to this
Raf, did you know that I used to live right by Old Orchard Beach in Maine? Its cool that you were just there…
Looking forward to following you on this adventure :)
By Dan
September 28, 2007 12:56 PM | Link to this
Rafi…sounds like you are having a great time….maybe you need to clarify, as my kids say…the difference between train time and mom time. (My wife is always late). Perhaps your engineer has “train time”.
Travel safe, Dan
By Katie Drummond
September 30, 2007 11:50 PM | Link to this
Hey boys! Watch out for all those volcanoes! And please wave to my homeland as you pass by (Monterey) :)