Acela & Amtrak NEC (HSR BOS-NYP-WAS and branches only)

Anecdotally, I've seen a lot of complaints on social media about the seats ergonomics on the new Acela - folks didn't like the Venture seats, they really don't like these.
 
FK4 said:
I guess the real benefit is they can run faster, so that's good
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"can" is doing an awful lot of work here. Right now, unless significant track improvements have transpired in the mere five months since they debuted, they're actually running SLOWER than their predecessors in the Acela fleet.

"Although the high-speed trains are advertised as 10 mph faster than their predecessors, the schedules show the new train actually runs slower on the route by three to seven minutes per trip between Washington and New York City.
An Amtrak spokesperson said Wednesday that 'trip time improvements will continue to be determined based on infrastructure improvements we will also make along the Corridor.'"
 
DBM said:
"can" is doing an awful lot of work here. Right now, unless significant track improvements have transpired in the mere five months since they debuted, they're actually running SLOWER than their predecessors in the Acela fleet.

"Although the high-speed trains are advertised as 10 mph faster than their predecessors, the schedules show the new train actually runs slower on the route by three to seven minutes per trip between Washington and New York City.
An Amtrak spokesperson said Wednesday that 'trip time improvements will continue to be determined based on infrastructure improvements we will also make along the Corridor.'"
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The Acela trains will eventually be about 10 minutes faster on the Boston/NYC run. But that cannot happen until all the new trainsets are received and in service. Then the slotting will be adjusted to accommodate the small increase in speed. The slotting adjustments cannot be made until all trains running are NextGen, because the slot allocation has to work for both train sets right now.

Slotting with the other users of the NEC is generally the speed limiter for Acela, more than track or train performance (certainly the case on the northern part of the line). For many critical areas of the NEC the other users own the tracks so Amtrak is always playing second fiddle on slotting.
 
JeffDowntown said:
The Acela trains will eventually be about 10 minutes faster on the Boston/NYC run. But that cannot happen until all the new trainsets are received and in service. Then the slotting will be adjusted to accommodate the small increase in speed. The slotting adjustments cannot be made until all trains running are NextGen, because the slot allocation has to work for both train sets right now.

Slotting with the other users of the NEC is generally the speed limiter for Acela, more than track or train performance (certainly the case on the northern part of the line). For many critical areas of the NEC the other users own the tracks so Amtrak is always playing second fiddle on slotting.
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Actually, the slots the way they're being apportioned right now are being run with only one set type of trainset--NG all-the-time on Train #xxxx or OG all-the-time on Train #yyyy--instead of any of the two fleets taking turns whenever so Amtrak can actively market and sell out the extra 2 cars' worth of seating capacity on the NG sets. They couldn't do that if it was an either/or fleet rotation. So they theoretically can now refactor the schedules whenever they want, because the slots are permanently going over to NG one by one. The problem is that the NG sets aren't yet doing 160 MPH in revenue service because of malingering FRA sign-offs as they shake the bugs out, so the time savings aren't really there yet for the taking. It's still only the non-revenue test trains that are consistently doing 160. It's not known when that detail is going to be rectified. Right now the final approvals for 160 in revenue is nobody's priority because the OG sets' fast-imploding reliability is such daily direct threat to that premium ticket revenue with how many cancellations they've had. They've had to stage parked standby Sprinter locomotives at multiple major yards on the NEC in a pinch to rescue OG Acelas that crap out en route; they've been pressed into service at least twice in the last week. It's a bad situation, only held at bay by the fact that NG acceptances into revenue service haven't hit any major snags in awhile.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Actually, the slots the way they're being apportioned right now are being run with only one set type of trainset--NG all-the-time on Train #xxxx or OG all-the-time on Train #yyyy--instead of any of the two fleets taking turns whenever so Amtrak can actively market and sell out the extra 2 cars' worth of seating capacity on the NG sets. They couldn't do that if it was an either/or fleet rotation. So they theoretically can now refactor the schedules whenever they want, because the slots are permanently going over to NG one by one. The problem is that the NG sets aren't yet doing 160 MPH in revenue service because of malingering FRA sign-offs as they shake the bugs out, so the time savings aren't really there yet for the taking. It's still only the non-revenue test trains that are consistently doing 160. It's not known when that detail is going to be rectified. Right now the final approvals for 160 in revenue is nobody's priority because the OG sets' fast-imploding reliability is such daily direct threat to that premium ticket revenue with how many cancellations they've had. They've had to stage parked standby Sprinter locomotives at multiple major yards on the NEC in a pinch to rescue OG Acelas that crap out en route; they've been pressed into service at least twice in the last week. It's a bad situation, only held at bay by the fact that NG acceptances into revenue service haven't hit any major snags in awhile.
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OK, I can assume you have the inside scoop.

But I had a train flip from OG to NG on Jan 7 with no change in schedule (notice only a couple of days before) -- so that does not seem to indicate a dedicated OG slot.
 
JeffDowntown said:
But I had a train flip from OG to NG on Jan 7 with no change in schedule (notice only a couple of days before) -- so that does not seem to indicate a dedicated OG slot.
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That has happened, but usually because of an OG equipment failure when they got lucky and happened to have a standby NG trainset at the terminal. It basically never happens the other way around.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
That has happened, but usually because of an OG equipment failure when they got lucky and happened to have a standby NG trainset at the terminal. It basically never happens the other way around.
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Makes sense. Particularly given the failure rate of the OG trainsets.
 
So I received a truly strange email about a future schedule change or cancellation on Acela in March. Except the email had no real information. It read like a horoscope:

There is a train trip in your future.
This train trip will be disrupted.
The disruption may be severe, or perhaps not.
Until the planets complete their alignment, we cannot foresee the extent of the disruption.
More will be known in the future.
Continue to read your horoscope daily.
Be forewarned.
 
JeffDowntown said:
So I received a truly strange email about a future schedule change or cancellation on Acela in March. Except the email had no real information. It read like a horoscope:

There is a train trip in your future.
This train trip will be disrupted.
The disruption may be severe, or perhaps not.
Until the planets complete their alignment, we cannot foresee the extent of the disruption.
More will be known in the future.
Continue to read your horoscope daily.
Be forewarned.
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February 15-March 15 is when the gradual track cutover to the new Portal Bridge is going to take place. NJ Transit schedules are decimated for the whole month with most NYP service being turned at Hoboken because of all the single-tracking and temp slow zones. Amtrak's supposed to be getting dispatching priority throughout the pinch so they haven't yet announced any schedule changes, but it's expected (based on this NJ Transit presentation) that there'll be -2 Acelas and -4 Regionals during the cutover. if your trip falls within that date range they might be giving you a heads-up that your slot could be one of the ones on the chopping block.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
February 15-March 15 is when the gradual track cutover to the new Portal Bridge is going to take place. NJ Transit schedules are decimated for the whole month with most NYP service being turned at Hoboken because of all the single-tracking and temp slow zones. Amtrak's supposed to be getting dispatching priority throughout the pinch so they haven't yet announced any schedule changes, but it's expected (based on this NJ Transit presentation) that there'll be -2 Acelas and -4 Regionals during the cutover. if your trip falls within that date range they might be giving you a heads-up that your slot could be one of the ones on the chopping block.
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I suspected that was the case. Just information that your slot "might be on the chopping block" is not actionable, other than to create concern.
 

Work Will Stop on Critical Tunnel Project Unless Trump Restores Funding​

All work on the critical $16 billion project to build a rail tunnel under the Hudson River to New York City will come to a halt by the end of next week unless the Trump administration reinstates federal funding for it, the project’s builder is expected to announce Tuesday.
The project, known as Gateway, sits at the middle of the busy Northeast Corridor rail route running from Boston to Washington and is one of the largest infrastructure initiatives in the United States. It has been under construction for more than a year after it received pledges of about $12 billion from the federal government. Workers have been preparing to assemble the first of two massive tunnel boring machines, which recently arrived in pieces from Germany.
But that money from Washington stopped flowing in October while the government was shut down. Officials at the federal Department of Transportation said the funding would remain suspended until the project’s contracts could be reviewed for compliance with new rules about businesses owned by women and minorities.
Despite assurances from the tunnel project’s manager, the Gateway Development Commission, that it would comply, the funding has not been restored.
Close to 1,000 union laborers have continued working on the project at four sites in Manhattan and northern New Jersey. But officials of the development commission warned that they could not stay on schedule toward completion in 2035 unless the suspension was lifted soon.
At the commission’s monthly board meeting on Tuesday, its chief executive, Thomas Prendergast, plans to warn the board that construction would have to stop by Feb. 6 when a line of credit that has kept it going would be exhausted, people with knowledge of the situation said.
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North Shore said:
As someone who works in heavy construction (albeit as an engineer), it always befuddles me why so many tradespeople who work in the industry vote for the party who refuses to invest in our public infrastructure which in turn generates their jobs.
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A lot of it is optics and perception. If a candidate runs a presidential campaign friendly to working class males, then its chances of winning improve.
 
gothamist.com

Judge orders Trump administration to unlock Gateway funding

Work on the $16 billion project had been paused amid a fight between the White House and Democrats.
gothamist.com gothamist.com
A Manhattan federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze funding for the sprawling Gateway project on Friday, paving the way for work to resume on a new set of Hudson River tunnels.
Judge Jeannette Vargas’ order came in a lawsuit filed by the New York and New Jersey attorneys general against the federal government. The states argued the White House’s order to withhold the funds was illegal and caused economic harm.
“Plaintiffs have adequately shown that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project,” Vargas wrote, barring the federal government from suspending funding while the case proceeds.
New Jersey lawyer Shankar Duraiswamy said in oral arguments before the ruling that pausing the project would cause “irreparable harm.” If the disruption were to drag on, he said, it could “torpedo the project.”
The federal government argued the case should not be heard in Manhattan, and instead belonged in a federal claims court in Washington, D.C. Gateway officials have filed a lawsuit there as well. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Tuesday.
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Judge temporarily halts order requiring Trump to unfreeze tunnel funding​

A U.S. judge in New York on Monday temporarily put her ruling on hold forcing the Trump administration to lift a four-month-old freeze on federal funding for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project connecting New York City and New Jersey.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas on Friday had ordered the funding restored. The Justice Department had warned it would be required by 1 p.m Monday to disburse up to $200 million in funds for the project unless her order halted.
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