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America Is Catching Up With The World: Amtrak’s Acela Express is HereThe long awaited beginning of Acela Express, the new 150 MPH high-speed service between Boston- New York City and Washington D.C. is finally here. On November 16 Acela Express had its ceremonial run and revenue service will start on December 11. Between November 16 and December 11 Amtrak will run trains to train crew, show travel agents what it is like and run charter trains for pro sports teams. The beginning of Acela was a very festive occasion. There were politicians and celebrities on board the inaugural run from the nation’s capital to the capital of the Bay State, Boston. This was the first time in Amtrak’s 29-year history that a train went 150 MPH. It hit the record breaking 150 mark near Kingston, Rhode Island, which is South of Providence. In December Amtrak will start out with one round trip daily, which will depart from Washington’s Union Station at 5 AM get to New York at 8:03 AM and arrive at South Station in Boston at 11:31 AM. It will leave Boston at 5:12 PM and arrive in Washington D.C. at 11:43 PM. The Boston to New York segment will take 3 hours and 27 minutes. This is 31 minutes faster than Acela Regional service, (Volume 5 Edition 5) which was launched on January 31. It is an hour and a 20 minutes faster than NortheastDirect service. It may go down to the extremely impressive 3 hours and 4 minutes in 2 to 3 years. On the New York to Washington part of the run only 15 minutes will be cut off travel time from the Acela Regional service. There also will be two Acela Super Expresses which will be 5 minutes faster than the other run and will go non-stop between the two big cites. These two trains will be introduced in January. The Acela Express trains have 6 cars and can carry 304 people. There are at seat meals and a pub café car. Each person will be able to listen to three channels of audio entertainment. If you want to read the rest of this exclusive article you have to get the issue. Go back to Volume 4a Edition 5's home page to find out how. The information for this article came from Trains Magazine’s website, Reuters, Reuter Securities and Amtrak.com. |
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