NEW YORK — Amtrak is now offering tickets on Northeast Corridor trains that will debut the long-delayed NextGen Acela trainsets, and has announced which trains will feature the equipment, as well as highlighting those trains with a “NextGen” icon on the booking portion of its website and app.
The company announced that addition to its booking process in a press release today (Aug. 19, 2025), and also informed regular customers by email. It said these trains are scheduled to initially feature the new equipment:
Weekdays: Trains 2153, 2154, 2170, and 2173
Saturdays: Trains 2250 and 2251
Sundays: Trains 2248, 2258, 2259, and 2271
The new Acelas are scheduled to debut on Aug. 28; Amtrak had previously announced that date but had not indicated which trains would feature the new equipment [see “Amtrak NextGen Acela debut …,” Trains.com, Aug. 7, 2025]. Amtrak cautions in a disclaimer that substitution of trains might be necessary “from time to time,” and that such substitutions are permitted without notice under its terms and conditions.
Amtrak ordered 28 trainsets of the new Acela equipment from Alstom in 2016, and were originally projected to enter service in 2021. A series of delays — some attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, others related to testing issues, and others that remain unexplained — have steadily pushed back the debut and forced Amtrak to extend use of the original Acela equipment beyond its intended lifespan.
