Boston-Washington D.C.: New high-speed trains run more smoothly but are still slow

After long delays, Amtrak will deploy new high-speed trains on the Northeast Corridor between Boston, MA and Washington, DC. The new Acela trainsets will travel at up to 160 miles per hour (mph), just under 260 km/h, making them 10 mph faster than the first-generation trains, still known as Acela Express, which are over 25 years old.

Amtrak officially calls the new trains NextGen Acela, which are based on Alstom's Avelia Liberty platform. As always, they will operate with two power cars at the front and rear. The two car ends also share a bogie, known as Jacobs bogies, which means that the trains can only be shortened or lengthened with enormous effort, something that is rarely carried out in high-speed rail.

The new Acelas are intended to improve overall service. This includes 27% more seats per trainset, including eight wheelchair spaces. The seats also now offer USB ports, albeit only USB-A. Moreover, the new train also features an improved tilting system. Like its predecessor, the train can lean into curves, but is now expected to travel more smoothly at the new 160 mph limit. This increases the potential for increased speeds overall along the Northeast Corridor, which is mostly very winding and has only very short sections that can be traveled at high speeds. Up to now, an average speed of only 70 mph (112 km/h) has been possible. 

However, Amtrak has not yet announced any time improvements. These could also be achieved with more express trains, as Amtrak now has more rolling stock. Further information on the new Acela is expected before August 28th.

So the trains will still not be particularly fast. Either way, high-speed rail is defined differently in US, where a speed of just under 180 km/h or 110 mph is sufficient. The International Union of Railways (UIC) defines high speed rail as 255 km/h, but allows exceptions of 200 km/h under certain circumstances. In South Korea, this is at least 300 km/h.

Amtrak, of course, views things differently. In its own marketing in 2020, the company described it as the fastest train in the Western Hemisphere. A very idiosyncratic definition, especially since Morocco had already reached 320 km/h at the time.