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Top headlines
Lead story
Sleeker, faster Amtrak trains with more, and slightly more comfortable, seats will finally hit the rails later this month. The long-awaited and seriously delayed NextGen Acela trains roll out along the Northeast Corridor, the popular line that connects Washington to Boston, with stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.
But don’t expect the new machines to break any world speed records, warns David Alff, who published a book on the history of the Northeast Corridor and America’s love-hate relationship with fast trains. Even a faster Acela won’t match the 200-mile-an-hour speeds seen in China, Japan and France. The new Amtrak models have the potential to hit the 180s, but that would require better tracks and signals – which aren’t coming anytime soon.
Alff covers some of the highs and lows in American rail in recent years and explains why the NextGen Acela trains are part of a mini-renaissance that’s all the more remarkable because it comes at a time of federal funding cuts and diminished political will for passenger trains.
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The new Acela trains are scheduled to start running on the Northeast Corridor soon.
Courtesy of Amtrak
David Alff, University at Buffalo
The French-designed, American-manufactured NextGen arrives years late and in a moment when federally sponsored trains are fighting for their lives.
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