Amtrak is buying itself a new generation of trains for its Acela high-speed service in the Boston-NY-Washington corridor. The new trainsets will be capable of speeds up to 186mph and have 40% more seats.
The Northeast Corridor service is one of Amtrak's few profitable operations, and the present Acela trains are often sold out. With the 28 new sets, Amtrak will have enough to run Acela every half-hour between DC and NY, and every hour to Boston.
The new trains are being built by Alstom's plant at Hornell in upstate New York, and are based on designs Alstom builds for numbers of Europe's high-speed lines. While they're capable of 186mph, the track they run on isn't, although Amtrak has plans for upgrades. When they come into service, by 2021, their highest speed will be 160mph, and that only for certain stretches of the line.
Passengers will see amenity upgrades, with onboard Wi-Fi, personal outlets and USB ports, reading lights, and upgraded food service. Funding for the cars and some infrastructure upgrades will come from the Federal Railroad Administration's Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing program. It will be repaid, hopefully, through growth in Northeast Corridor revenues.
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