They’re bigger, so they can take more passengers. Maybe that added mass makes it so they have to accelerate/decelerate a bit slower? More passengers for a slightly slower time seems like a decent tradeoff to me. Of course it’s still an embarrassment that this is the premier passenger rail line in the US.
The railroad tracks are REALLY old (allegedly) and aren’t at all built for higher speeds than what was possible in 1976 (or whenever Carter took office).
Yup. Plus the NEC is one of the few (or only?) lines where Amtrak doesn’t have to share the track with freight. But the acela still has to share track with all of the slower amtraks, so that’s another limiting factor to the speed. IIRC, the acela really only gets up to a decent speed in some segments between boston and nyc.
They’re bigger, so they can take more passengers. Maybe that added mass makes it so they have to accelerate/decelerate a bit slower? More passengers for a slightly slower time seems like a decent tradeoff to me. Of course it’s still an embarrassment that this is the premier passenger rail line in the US.
The railroad tracks are REALLY old (allegedly) and aren’t at all built for higher speeds than what was possible in 1976 (or whenever Carter took office).
Yup. Plus the NEC is one of the few (or only?) lines where Amtrak doesn’t have to share the track with freight. But the acela still has to share track with all of the slower amtraks, so that’s another limiting factor to the speed. IIRC, the acela really only gets up to a decent speed in some segments between boston and nyc.