Passenger Trains > Acela I service

I looked at a schedule today for NB WAS-NYP service and found only two early morning Acela departures.  Everthing else was Regionals.  Are they already phasing out the old ones?

Greatly reduced service from what was, sadly.

As I mentioned in another thread where you posed this question:

There was a Board Member at the last public meeting that added concern - or at least hinted at it. He brought into question the current [damaged supply/demand for] Acela Express 1.0 ops and asked how certain was Amtarak management that the Next Gen Acelas would be filling a real need at FULL capacity!!! In other words, could the damage in the brand restored and what's the confidence level that Next Gen Acelas will operate at full capacity. It was a brief question and very hurriedly answered and they moved on. I found it to be a very interesting question. Definitely something that this board member had thought smartly about!!! 

PRR1361

Hope this helps -- but, there are 3 early departures from DC to NYP

4:54 AM
5:55 AM
6:50 AM

hope one of these works for you.

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PRR1361
>
> Hope this helps -- but, there are 3 early
> departures from DC to NYP
>
> 4:54 AM
> 5:55 AM
> 6:50 AM
>
> hope one of these works for you.

It's pretty much been hourly departures all morning for as long as I can remember, although there might be a gap later, or possibly just in the winter. 

mbrotzman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ronald321 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > PRR1361
> >
> > Hope this helps -- but, there are 3 early
> > departures from DC to NYP
> >
> > 4:54 AM
> > 5:55 AM
> > 6:50 AM
> >
> > hope one of these works for you.
>
> It's pretty much been hourly departures all
> morning for as long as I can remember, although
> there might be a gap later, or possibly just in
> the winter. 

NO, it's not:

• Nothing from 6:50 to 9:26 am - like there used to be. 
• Gap between 10:28 am and 12:50 pm
• Gap in the afternoon - the 4:00 pm used to be HUGELY popular, especially out of Baltimore. That was dropped. 
• Last Acela train out of Washington DC is now 6:25 pm. 

They have re-arranged and spaced these trains out much differently in the current schedule than what used to be. 

Suffice it to say, Acela is on triage and life support. Just getting off a clock pattern is damaging, never mind hours missing.

Marketing, poor excuse that it is, ought to come up with another name for the Avelia's. "Acela" is irreversibly damaged. Maybe go back to "Metroliner". At least AEM-7 and Amfleet were reliable.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Suffice it to say, Acela is on triage and life
> support. Just getting off a clock pattern is
> damaging, never mind hours missing.
>
> Marketing, poor excuse that it is, ought to come
> up with another name for the Avelia's. "Acela" is
> irreversibly damaged. Maybe go back to
> "Metroliner". At least AEM-7 and Amfleet were
> reliable.

I actually thought it'd be nice to have Acela/Avelia (whatever) as the premium service on the NEC, then Metroliners as the NYP to WAS "shuttle" as a premium fast product (with onboard serve to match the premium), and then the Northeast Regionals. 

Three classes of Amtrak NEC trains is too complicated. 

Yes, Gentlemen, Acela service has been cut.  I believe 4 Acela
round trips were removed as a sacrifice to the "Cost Cutting God".

This is just another reason I have a low opinion of AmManagement

Amtrak considers Acela to be Profitable.  In fact, for the first 7 months (YTD)
in 2025---Amtrak says Acela made a profit of $117 Million dollars.

What Management in their right mind would cut 4 round trips (8 schedules)
from a profitable service.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/25 06:55 by ronald321.

They got dropped because 4 of the train sets are retired, and the rest are cantankerous.

joemvcnj

Yes,  Amtrak retired 4 train-sets (I think it was 4)--but, I considered this
as just Spin to cover up cost cutting, because---

when you consider the crew cost savings from cutting 8 departures, the
temptation is too great for a Management  whose Bonuses are based on cost savings.

And, data doesn't seem to support that Acela-1's  are cantankerous or troublesome, because --
.  Acela on-time record is in the 70-80% bracket -- meaning they are very reliable on a daily basis.

. Recently saw a YouTube video, where an Amtrak employee who is actually an engineer running
Acela-2 in their test runs--said the original Acelas (Acela-1)--are getting old, but they are very good trains.

Based on this, I concluded that AmManagement did not HAVE to do this.

if you come to a different conclusion--great.  








 

Thanks to all for this info, which leaves me stunned.  Up until about 6 years ago I travelled frequently between Trenton and BWI, always on Acela, with many departure time choices.  I thought I'd take a "joy-ride" BWI-NYP and return to burn up some miles, and was shocked at the lack of available choices. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
Al

Acela on-time record is in the 70-80% bracket -- meaning they are very reliable on a daily basis.

No, that is extremely poor and represents too many mechanical problems.

PRR1361 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks to all for this info, which leaves me
> stunned.  Up until about 6 years ago I travelled
> frequently between Trenton and BWI, always on
> Acela, with many departure time choices.  I
> thought I'd take a "joy-ride" BWI-NYP and return
> to burn up some miles, and was shocked at the lack
> of available choices. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
> Al

Trenton has always had very limited (or no?) Acela service and BWI only sees limited service in the northbound direction due to the schedule hit of having to pull over for the track #1 platform. Go look up old timetable scans and you'll see what I mean. Your issue is not with Acela, its BWI the station. 

BWI is my home station and if I want to do Acela stuff I often have to book from WAS or BAL. I think the ~230p AX lost its BWI stop a few years ago, but beyond that its like Metropark service wise, at least in the Northbound direction. At least almost every AX stops at BWI heading south. 

 

joemvcnj

All I can say to  you is -- The Airline Industry consider an 80% OT record
as perfection--the Best they can do.

Amtrak also considers 80% as the goal they strive for (check all the
on-time data they report monthly--you will see that beautiful 80% goal.

No one can achieve 100% all the time, year round, --but, Acela comes
as close as can reasonable be expected.

But, they won't be with us long -- our hope rests with the Acela-2's.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/25 12:56 by ronald321.

Took Accela to DC last month.  I was disappointed that the seats were flipped half half and I rode bacwards to DC.   But it was a very quiet, smooth ride.    

ronald321 Wrote:

> All I can say to  you is -- The Airline Industry
> consider an 80% OT record
> as perfection--the Best they can do.


Someone should tell Delta that 80% is the best they can do.

"In addition to winning the Cirium Platinum Award, Delta topped the rankings for being the most on-time airline in North America. In 2023, Cirium tracked 1,635,486 Delta flights, 84.72% of which arrived on time, which is up from 83.63% the previous year."

https://news.delta.com/most-time-airline-north-america-delta-wins-cirium-platinum-award

To keep things about railroading, Brightline does 94%, with "lemon" Siemens equipment.

brightline-florida-april-2024-revenue-ridership-report. ...Brightline[url=https://www.gobrightline.com]https://www.gobrightline.com › investor-relations[/url]

Tyohoon

You should be telling this to fellow fan, joemvcnj, not me.

He thinks 80% is very poor -- and indicative of problems.

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tyohoon
>
> You should be telling this to fellow fan,
> joemvcnj, not me.

 You stated that airlines, which have nothing to do with the subject, can do no better than 80% on time.   Delta has proven that statement to be false.



> He thinks 80% is very poor -- and indicative of
> problems.

I agree with him.

Brightline, with equipment that the TO experts call "lemons" turned in a 94% on time record.   On a route with a lot more freight traffic and grade crossings....

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Amtrak also considers 80% as the goal they strive
> for (check all the
> on-time data they report monthly--you will see
> that beautiful 80% goal.
>
> No one can achieve 100% all the time, year round,
> --but, Acela comes
> as close as can reasonable be expected.

I don't care what Amtrak considers their goal, and that is for LD trains. When the commuter railroads drop below 90%, that is considered poor.