TRENTON, N.J. — Amtrak is going to break the speed limit in the Northeast Corridor. The rail service said Monday that it will operate test trains overnight at 165 miles per hour in four stretches from Maryland to Massachusetts.
Acela Express equipment will be used for the tests, which were to start at about 10:30 p.m. Monday in New Jersey and will continue into next week, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said.
Comments
The equipment in the photo is NOT the Acela, it is instead a conventional locomotive.
What this article fails to mention is that most of the improvements in Northeast Corridor timetable performance come from repairing the lengthy segments that restrict maximum speeds to under 15MPH. Even conventional equipment, like that pictured in the piece, benefits from these improvements -- at MUCH lower price to passengers.
This is all well and good however it's window dressing. It's about 150 miles from the Route 128 suburban station in Westwood, MA to New Haven and about 72 or 75 from New Haven to Penn Station yet New Haven, time-wise, is just about the halfway point. Until Metro North finishes repairs to their railroad between New Haven and New Rochelle and Amtrak does something with the slow stretch from New Rochelle to Penn Station top-speed improvements in RI and Mass won't mean a thing. The railroad's route is 160 years old, full of curves and bridges and slow spots. What's needed is a new railroad on a different alignment; then maybe we'd have a hope of faster service. Also while they're at it Amtrak might consider repairs to its stations. Escalators are out of commission for months with the bad excuse that the parts come from ThyssenKrupp in Germany. Could row those parts across the pond in a canoe and have the repairs done by now. Oh - and maybe fix the roadbed. It's still scary-bumpy from the damage done by Hurricane Irene. Hold onto your hat as you pass thru Madison, CT on the Acela. Get the trip down to 2.5 hours and airplanes would empty in a hurry.