Acela, Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor high-speed rail service, is getting close being 20 years old. With more and more people riding the train Amtrak is reflecting on its past but also looking towards the future, as it attempts to improve and better itself with the next Acela Express.
“We are running close to capacity on many days on the week on many departures and our marketing people are already feeling the pinch of people either not taking trips or spilling over to regional trains,” says Mark Yachmetz Amtraks ‘s Chief of Rail Fleet Initiatives. “The people who ordered the [Acela] equipment in the 90′s, I think, would be surprised at how well Acela has worked. Other than 2009, ridership has grown every year.”
In an effort to benefit even more from Acela, which has become Amtrak’s biggest source of profit, the railway corporation is looking to simplify equipment and eliminate operational issues and unnecessary costs.
“We’re looking for something that is ‘service proven’ overseas,” said Yachmetz. “The current equipment we use for Acela was the first time these components were assembled in this configuration. It was the last time these components were ever assembled in this configuration. There were no economies of scale of purchase. As the technology aged, we were really sort of out there by ourselves.”
Amtrak want the next Acela Express to be “future proof.” They plan on using the current Acela trainset as a basic model for the new one. However, the new Acela Express looks to improve upon the 150 mph speed of the current Acela, making it go even faster, and also add around 120 more additional seats to the train.
As of right now, there are no plans to lengthen the Acela, but Amtrak has not ruled that option out. There is a possibility that the new Acela express could be lengthened to 10 cars, which would be able to hold 600 passengers in total, twice the capacity of the current Acela train.
“Whats out there now in terms of the experience of the passenger is sort of the floor, not the ceiling. We are actually looking for people to enhance that,” said Yachemtz.
Photo courtesy of Amtrak
