Amtrak’s Acela trains compete directly with airlines in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor on the boast of avoiding long trips to the airport and long security lines that make the train about as fast as the plane overall.
Now they’ve matched the airlines on another marker: Non-stop service that will cut nearly half an hour off the New York to DC trip. One morning train to DC and one late afternoon train to New York will skip all stops. Acela is a mostly business-class product and the new schedule is aimed at business travelers who need to be in DC but want to be home for dinner.
If the schedule proves popular, Amtrak may add a morning DC to New York non-stop with an afternoon return. Boston will have to wait, though, for 2021, when Amtrak will get its next generation of Acela trains and be able to add more trips. But don’t get too excited: Acela is only a high-speed train by U.S. measures; its top speed is well below those of high-speed trains such as France’s TGV and Japan’s bullet trains.
