PHILADELPHIA — Amtrak opened a second-generation Acela high-speed trainset for press inspection Monday at 30th Street Station, giving a look at the interiors of the first-class, business-class, and café cars that will make up 28 160-mph trainsets projected to enter service between Boston, New York, and Washington late next year.
Parked at an underground boarding platform on Track 9, a shiny white-and-blue Acela trainset contrasted sharply with the 47-year-old stainless-steel Amfleet cars making up a Philadelphia-Harrisburg, Pa., Keystone Service train on the next track.
The new trains will consist of 11-unit sets, made up of 2 power cars, a first-class car, a café car, and 7 business-class cars, one of which will be a designated quiet car. They are being built by French manufacturer Alstom at its plant in Hornell, N.Y.
Offering 380 seats each, the 28 trainsets will replace the current version of Acela — 20 eight-unit trainsets with 304 seats, dating from 1999-2000.
Noah Heulitt, project director for Alstom, said the new trainsets are lighter than the existing Acelas, reducing axle loadings from 23 tons to 17 tons and dropping total unloaded weight from 585 tons to 499.1 tons. As a result, he said, the combined power-car rating dropped from 6,169 hp in each existing Acela set to 4,758 hp for the new version.
Even with the lighter weight, Heulitt said, the cars meet the Federal Railroad Administration’s buff-loading crashworthiness test requirement of 800,000 pounds. Fifteen of the 28 sets are in “some phase of production,” he said.
Seven weeks ago, Amtrak distributed photos previewing the same interior features [See “Amtrak releases images of interiors for new Acelas,” Trains News Wire, May 1, 2022].
Michelle Tortolani, Amtrak assistant vice president for the New Acela Program, highlighted new features as she led clusters of reporters through the interior. Among them:
—Recycled leather is used on all seats.
— Pitch (distance between seats) in First Class is 37 inches, compared to 34 inches at present. Business-class pitch is 33 inches.
— Red upholstery accents indicate first-class seating, while blue accents indicate business class.
— The first-class galley is located in a business-class car adjacent to the first-class car.
— Standard business-class cars all have four sets of folding tables to accommodate meetings of traveling foursomes.
— Overhead racks will be open with clear guards, somewhat mimicking Amtrak Amfleet and Horizon Fleet practice, rather than airline-style enclosed bins as used on current Acelas. This, Tortonlani said, promotes a lighter appearance and tends to help passengers avoid leaving personal items behind.
— The café car has no seating. One end provides patrons with access to a self-serve pantry in a cafeteria-style flow, while the other offers an as-yet-unnamed standee area about 14 feet long with narrow tables on which to place coffee cups or food items being consumed.
— All toilet areas – one per car – are roomy and wheelchair accessible. Each is equipped with a circular pocket door rather than a traditional hinged style that is difficult for physically challenged passengers to open.
— A change in the power-car cab environment replaces the current two seats with a single centered seat, behind which are two training/observer seats.
After FRA certification for high speeds, Tortolani said, the trainsets are expected to enter service in the fall of 2023. This represents a second delay from the original schedule [see “Amtrak explains latest delay for new Acela deployment,” Trains News Wire, April 8, 2022.] A trainset has already tested at 165 mph [See “Acela testing on north end of Northeast Corridor,” News Wire, April 8, 2021].
The branding of some service features also appears to be fluid. One business-class car displayed a logo reading “Acela Class,” but Alstom communications manager Cliff Cole said that that term has been dropped from final consideration.
A café car which has no seating on Amtrak’s faster, higher-tech, American built new-generation Acela trainsets? That’s a bit of a thought-provoking situation!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Love this. Acela has been around for 22 year and they are replacing equipment that at most has 65% of the mileage as the long distance and corridor fleet The newest long distance/corridor cars are 30 plus years old and the fleet averages over 40 years old. The locomotives are also 30 to 35 years old.
Don’t you think you should replace the oldest and least reliable equipment. It would save money on the maintenance budget.
Lastly. aren’t freight cars supposed to taken out of interline service after so many years of service.
Those seats will be just as empty when it goes into service, luxury trains & service for the NE compliments of the nations taxpayers who still have to pay for their own state supported service or their dismal LD service on 40 yr old equipment.
Well, it’s gotta be better than how the coach passengers on the LDs are treated with respect to the food service! So how come “Amtrak Joe” didn’t put in an appearance? I remember as VP he, with great fanfare, announced the contract being let for this second generation of Acela trainsets. Oh, I forgot. He’s out of the country dealing with much weightier issues. If he is still in office when these trains go into service, he can ride the inaugural WAS departure…at least to Wilmington. But what about the discontinued Silver Meteor, Mr. President? Why did your administration allow for the decimation of the LDs? Those trains and the passengers they carried to/from the small towns along the way were not worth it?
So no hot food or server for most train passengers (business class)?
Maybe the old ‘Acela’ high-speed train-sets could be “re-purposed” to serve on California’s HSR (Bay Area-to-L.A.) corridor when it is finally completed (2033? 2035? 2045? 2050 ???)
(Insert laughter here …!)
So the rest of the country is left behind at the gate, so to speak? Could the retired equipment be repurposed for less than high speed use? Meanwhile, SD40-2’s soldier on.
You jest but I bet the old equipment will be put to use somewhere! And might as well…