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

Is that an actual concept/render? Very Japanese looking. Even the addition of passenger seats to the "locomotive".
 
You can design any train you want but if you can't hit more than 80mph on some tracks why bother.
 
So has Amtrak given indication that its close to procuring an Acela 2?

vanshnookenraggen said:
You can design any train you want but if you can't hit more than 80mph on some tracks why bother.
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Depends on what fraction of the journey is on the "some tracks" that are slow.

And the Acela 2 needs only to be best-in-corridor, not best-in-world.

WAS-NYP Acela 2 is going to complete the domination begun by Acela, and complete its conquest of NYP-PVD and BOS-STM, and even make a decent run at things like PVD-PHL.
 
Is Acela 2 expected to traverse BOS-STM in 2.5 hours? Because that would be awesome.
 
Acela "1" is massively overweight, causing all sorts of problems that could stand to be fixed.

Not to mention, the service is so popular that they need more and more seats. Longer train-sets for one.

I hear MetroNorth has dropped their objection to tilting on their section of track so that's also being investigated.
 
davem said:
Has anyone else ridden the acella lately? I haven't in about a year and holy shit are they falling apart. Dirt, grime, and worn surfaces everywhere. The ride's still pretty nice, but I feel like I'm in someone's 90s beater pickup truck.
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Not to mention broken tray tables & broken seat backs!

Seams that they are neglecting to take care of these things. I've encountered those 2 things the last time that I rode on it, and that was in first class!

Sat in one of the aisle seats and the tray table in front of me was broken. Sat right in the seat in front of the broken table, and the seat back itself was broken! :eek:
 
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Looks like the speed on this newer Acela 2 should be at least 200 or close to it. :cool:
 
Jahvon09 said:
Looks like the speed on this newer Acela 2 should be at least 200 or close to it. :cool:
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Is 160mph close enough? Train and tracks have to work together as a system and the current procurement is open to any manufacturer who produces a train capable of 160mph ops, cause that's how fast the track will be rated/maintained between now and 2030+

Even at that we'll only see 160 speeds initially on the straight stretches near Providence and in Central NJ, though during the life of the new Acela 2s, there's some hope that stretches between Baltimore and Philly can be rebuilt (when the Maryland Gunpowder & Susquehanna bridges get rebuilt)

I believe Amtrak's 2012 Plan document is still the most realistic view of what will happen (just add +5 or +10 years to most deadlines).

Because 186mph is a magical 300km/h, many trains come already rated for 186mph or 190mph, but 160 is plenty fast (the Shinkansen debuted at 130/137 and the TGV launched at 170mph)
 
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Arlington said:
Is 160mph close enough? Train and tracks have to work together as a system and the current procurement is open to any manufacturer who produces a train capable of 160mph ops, cause that's how fast the track will be rated/maintained between now and 2030+

Even at that we'll only see 160 speeds initially on the straight stretches near Providence and in Central NJ, though during the life of the new Acela 2s, there's some hope that stretches between Baltimore and Philly can be rebuilt (when the Maryland Gunpowder & Susquehanna bridges get rebuilt)

I believe Amtrak's 2012 Plan document is still the most realistic view of what will happen (just add +5 or +10 years to most deadlines).

Because 186mph is a magical 300km/h, many trains come already rated for 186mph or 190mph, but 160 is plenty fast (the Shinkansen debuted at 130/137 and the TGV launched at 170mph)
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That is probably no faster that the existing Acela trains are now, at about a buck fifty - a buck 55 tops in certain areas.

Testing was one done on the trains probably not too long ago in New Jersey, with speeds raging from about 135, 140, 150, 155, 160, & 165mph.

The speed test was boosted to 170mph, but the train couldn't quite get there before the alarm and ATO kicked in, slowing down the train down slightly back to about 165mph. :eek:
 
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Matthew said:
Acela "1" is massively overweight, causing all sorts of problems that could stand to be fixed.

Not to mention, the service is so popular that they need more and more seats. Longer train-sets for one.

I hear MetroNorth has dropped their objection to tilting on their section of track so that's also being investigated.
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The tilting ban was always temporary. They've got that 8-year-long overhead renewal project installing constant-tension catenary from New Haven to New Rochelle. MNRR was not comfortable with the old bouncy variable-tension wire getting snagged on a pantograph during a tilt, amongst other things they were bellyaching about. Amtrak doesn't have those concerns in New Jersey on its own track, but the ex-NYNH&H overhead on the New Haven Line is different from the ex- Pennsylvania RR overhead on Amtrak's own section and MNRR is the one paying for this upkeep. Legit grievance? Maybe not if they were overstating the risk a bit. Justifiable? Yeah, it probably is. If they told Amtrak the tilt restriction would be lifted when they got the overhead replacement substantially complete on the tracks Amtrak most uses...that's a fully reasonable request made in good faith. They have stayed on-schedule with this very complex replacement project, and are very much on the home stretch. If the inner express tracks aren't done yet, they're very close to being done. The outer MNRR platform tracks are the more time-consuming job for the overhead replacement, and will take 2 more years to wrap. But Amtrak sticks to the center, so they might be good to tilt today.



More trainsets and longer trainsets most badly needed. And something a little easier to break apart to change trainset configurations around or substitute a wonky single car for a spare with no more than a day's downtime for the full trainset. Sort of like they do for the passive-tilt Talgos on the Cascades route. HSR trainsets are always going to trend to semi-permanent coupling that needs shop time to break apart. They'll never be regular coaches that can be shunted in the yard. But Bombardier's Acela design made that an absolute nightmare to do, so practically speaking if one car was having problems the whole trainset was out of service for a week or more while BBD sent their techs down to troubleshoot their unicorn product. There's no way that has to be, except BBD chose an over-complex hack of a design that relied too much on derived 1970's technology (i.e. VIA Rail's LRC coaches, which Amtrak tried out on lease from Bombardier for a couple years in the early-80's before saying "No thanks" to the quirks).
 
Matthew said:
Acela "1" is massively overweight, causing all sorts of problems that could stand to be fixed.

Not to mention, the service is so popular that they need more and more seats. Longer train-sets for one.

I hear MetroNorth has dropped their objection to tilting on their section of track so that's also being investigated.
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Hopefully, the newer trains will have longer train sets. But it just might necessitate longer platforms at some stations.

But first class & Quiet cars could & should be doubled though. :cool:
 
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Jahvon09 said:
Hopefully, the newer trains will have longer train sets. But it just might necessitate longer platforms at some stations.

But first class & Quiet cars could & should be doubled though. :cool:
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Nah. Amtrak's got Regionals platforms long enough for 12 passenger cars + a locomotive at nearly all their NEC stops (i.e. stops Amtrak uses, not the purely commuter rail stations). Only a few haven't been rounded up to that length yet, and any remaining shorties have plans for platform lengthening. Acela is 6 passenger cars sandwiched between 2 power cars. You could fit 1-1/2 Acelas on most Regionals platforms. New London Union Station is the only one far too short, since the very sharp curve makes the main platform low-level, the center full-high is very short because of the ferry terminal grade crossing bi-secting it, and they still have no firm idea what types of renovations/realignment would work for permanently fixing that whole setup. NLN's the only Acela stop that can't open all doors because of how uniquely constrained that station is, and probably the only one that'll still be in that state by the time Acela II's arrive.


So they can double the number of passenger cars per Acela set and fit everywhere the 12-car Regionals fit. Which is everywhere but New London. 12 passenger cars + 2 power cars is way too much for an Acela's demand, but that's how huge they could go on just their pre-existing platforms. Just order power cars for the Acela II with enough horses to handle extra passenger cars they can grow into throughout lifespan of the vehicle. Acela II probably finds its best mix of demand vs. premium tix price with 8-car sets across the fleet, and *maybe* in their 20-year lifespan they hit the point where a 9th or 10th car needs to be added to some sets for highest-demand hours. Acelas will never need to match the longest Regionals in length, or need to run longer than the average train length of the middle 50% of the daily Regionals schedule. So they're fine for the Acela II's entire lifespan and probably don't need to provision for 10+ cars until the Acela III equipment purchase in 2040 thereabouts when Amtrak Superduper HSR is possibly a real thing.
 
Update on the NJ tracks:
Inner 2 tracks have asked for a bump to 160mph
Outer 2 tracks are getting bi-diectional signaling and a bump to 125mph
Signaling is also allowing much higher (and more flexible) speeds to allow trains to follow each other more closely or operate in either direction without a big speed hit. While the bump to 160 isn't much in itself, overall ithe power and signal upgrades that go with it give the ability to operate more trains at sustained higher speeds
 
Arlington said:
Update on the NJ tracks:
Inner 2 tracks have asked for a bump to 160mph
Outer 2 tracks are getting bi-diectional signaling and a bump to 125mph
Signaling is also allowing much higher (and more flexible) speeds to allow trains to follow each other more closely or operate in either direction without a big speed hit. While the bump to 160 isn't much in itself, overall ithe power and signal upgrades that go with it give the ability to operate more trains at sustained higher speeds
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It's actually 2 sets of FRA approvals here. One for raising the official track class on that NJ stretch to Class 8 (160 MPH max authorized speed) on the inner tracks and Class 7 (125 MPH max authorized speed) on the outer tracks. The other is FRA approval to raise the max authorized speed of the Acela equipment from 150 to 160 MPH.

Bumping the Acela trainset speeds means that the two pre-existing stretches of Class 8 territory on the NEC more local to us--Sharon to East Jct. in Attleboro, and Harbor Jct. in Cranston to Shannock--instantly start doing 160 instead of 150 since the equipment can now finally match the MAS the track infrastructure has had for 13+ years. So coordination of wrapping the NJ construction work + two rubber-stamp paper transactions gets 3 states chucking in some real time savings on the schedule.


An actual quantifiable milestone in the endless quest for real-deal HSR!
 
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Sen Schumer went to Alstom's Hornell NY plant to announce that Alstom has won the Acela II procurement ($2.5b to $3.0b)
http://www.schumer.senate.gov/newsr...rect-manufacturing-jobs-at-alstom-in-hornell-

I'm not quoting the PR, because it mostly talks about why we want this (which we already know) and not exactly how many trainsets will be delivered when at what cost, which we should find out tomorrow when Amtrak makes its announcement.

So tomorrow we hear from Amtrak!
 
Nexis4jersey said:
Acela 2?

11062113_916765248365800_4270582371491428977_n.jpg
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I wonder if the new high-speed trainsets that Amtrak plans to aquire, will look like THIS. :cool:
 
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