Amtrak, the U.S. passenger rail operator, is adding capacity to its most-used routes along the Northeast Corridor between Washington, DC and Boston, with enough new trains to boost weekday capacity by 20% and 10% on Sunday.
The added trains, which will amount to over a million additional seats on an annual basis, are a response to continued growth along the line, with rates now exceeding pre-pandemic levels, with leisure travel increases outpacing business travel.
The bulk of the new seats are on the heaviest-traveled part of the route, between New York and Washington, a route that also serves Philadelphia and Baltimore, among others along the way. One added train covers a segment of the route, from Philadelphia to New York.
Amtrak recently decided to split seating in its cars on the route, with half facing forward and half backward to eliminate the need to turn trains at the ends of their run, and the railroad said that would also increase capacity by allowing each train to run more frequently.
Image: Amtrak’s next-gen Airo trains, coming to Northeast Corridor soon
