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.
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.