Passenger Trains > Trip report: Around the US by train (part 3 of ?)

Part 3: Day trip to Boston on the Acela Express

Have I mentioned there are a lot of people all out and about in New York? Just about all of them decided that Acela Express #2154, the 10:10 train to Boston, was a great place to be.

We waited in the newish Amtrak waiting area that you need to show a ticket to enter. This doesn’t match what I saw on the YouTube videos on how to navigate Penn Station – perhaps this renovation is a recent thing? And how the heck do some people figure out where to wait when no track number is posted?

I saw that the train arrived on the arrivals monitor (no track number given) and went to join the rest of the throng trying to sense where to go. A few minutes before departure the number was given, the throng condensed, and we slowly made our way down.

We luckily got two seats together, and soon after, we started moving.

There isn’t much to say about the trip itself, except it was kind of slow-ish going for the first half until about New Haven. There was quite a bit of track work and signal work going on, which might explain it. After New Haven, we started to fly – hitting 150 mph at one point, which is the fastest I’ve ever gone on land-based transportation. (My son, having been to Europe, was less impressed)

We arrived in Boston on time, made liberal use of the food court in South Station, and boarded our return train in a much more relaxed manner. Return was much the same – fast at the north/east end, slower as we approached New York.

I like the Acela trainsets, especially the large windows. The seats were comfortable-ish. The trainsets are starting to look a bit worn here and there, as the wifi was sporadically not working, the information signs at the ends of the car were sometimes glitchy, and parts of the interior really looked it needed refinishing or repainting. We didn’t separate at speed, for which I was very grateful.

(ok, let's see if I can get all these oriented correctly...)

(1) Just outside of Penn Station. New signals, I think?
(2) Wow, this part of the route (somewhere in Connecticut) is just really beautiful. Thank you very much to the person earlier who suggested I try to sit on the right/eastward side.

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(3) Our trainset after arrival in Boston. And as it turns out, it's also our trainset for our train back to New York
(4) Acela interior. I really do like the big windows. Hopefully the replacement trainsets will be just as nice in this regard.

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Top speed between New Rochelle and New Haven on Metro North is no higher than 90, and might even be lower than that. Metro North has no incentive to maintain the railroad for faster operation, and sharp curves (esp. Port Chester and Jenkins Curve in Bridgeport) and moveable bridges at multiple locations don't help with sustaining anything fast.

All of my Amtrak trips on MN New Haven line encounter a 10 minute delay, and much dilly-dallying at 30 - 40 MPH.

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The Acela equipment you rode into Boston is the same equipment shown on the cover of Amtrak's last nationwide timetable published in January 2016.