Acela Speeds

morris&essex4ever wrote:

amtrakowitz wrote:

Comparable to overseas, if the Acela had a dedicated ROW etc

The Acela is a tilting train. Such are meant to be used on traditional rights of way, not dedicated ones.

Tilting train or not, Acela would attain a much higher average speed on a dedicated ROW than the NEC and thus cut down trip times drastically

No, it would not be much higher, especially if the full potential of tilt trains are exploited instead of limited as the FRA does with their onerous regulations that do nothing but drive up cost to make it prohibitive; besides, the demand for intermediate stops would slow down the "dedicated high-speed right of way"-traveling train to have an average speed equivalent to a tilt train running at its full potential. And the cost is absolutely not worth it, even if it were equivalent to the cost of high-speed rail alignments elsewhere in the world (and it will not). There is also the matter of lack of platform/track space at the New York end.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Solution: Widen the B&O/RDG ROW between WAS and NYP to three tracks and divert all Regionals and Keystones, leaving the NEC an exclusive high speed line.

Im sure the hundreds of thousands of folks who use Commuter Trains all up and down the NEC daily would be THRILLED at that idea!

Jtgshu wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Solution: Widen the B&O/RDG ROW between WAS and NYP to three tracks and divert all Regionals and Keystones, leaving the NEC an exclusive high speed line.

Im sure the hundreds of thousands of folks who use Commuter Trains all up and down the NEC daily would be THRILLED at that idea!

Hey, never let practicality get in the way of a crazy idea.

Jtgshu wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Solution: Widen the B&O/RDG ROW between WAS and NYP to three tracks and divert all Regionals and Keystones, leaving the NEC an exclusive high speed line.

I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of folks who use Commuter Trains all up and down the NEC daily would be THRILLED at that idea!

Well, if Philly's 24th Street Station were reopened, riders of Regionals can't say they were dropped off in West Philly as would be the case with 30th Street.

The Acela will basically be running at its full potential on the upgraded New Brunswick - Trenton stretch of the NEC. That small segment at least will be like a dedicated high speed alignment!

how long is this section of track that they will be testing 165mph operations?

Clearfield wrote:

GP40MC 1116 wrote:Comparable to overseas, if the Acela had a dedicated ROW etc, I think it could do a whole lot more, who knows what the future brings

No question about it. Unfortunately, the NEC runs through the most densly populated areas in the country.

The cost to buy the ROW from existing property owners would run into the zillions, leaving tunnelling as one alternative.

Very true... Its frustrating, however I think Amtrak will just have to adapt from what they have to work with...

With the new HSR corridors in the US starting to come to life, been interesting to see how they work out...

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:how long is this section of track that they will be testing 165mph operations?

23 miles I believe. It's bracketed by 125 mph territory on the north end and 110 mph territory on the south end.

Matt Johnson wrote:

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:how long is this section of track that they will be testing 165mph operations?

23 miles I believe. It's bracketed by 125 mph territory on the north end and 110 mph territory on the south end.

So while every little bit helps, the net reduction in time isn't that much. But still nice to know eventually we'll be breaking 135mph south of NYC!)

The 23 miles includes four? curves; when the PRR/PC timetables said 160 mph limit for tests they said 140 mph on all the curves.

Greg Moore wrote:

Matt Johnson wrote:

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:how long is this section of track that they will be testing 165mph operations?

23 miles I believe. It's bracketed by 125 mph territory on the north end and 110 mph territory on the south end.

So while every little bit helps, the net reduction in time isn't that much. But still nice to know eventually we'll be breaking 135mph south of NYC!)

Its suppose to be only testing, with no plan to increase speed for revenue runs, I for one have not seen any plans to increase speeds for revenue runs.

timz wrote:The 23 miles includes four? curves; when the PRR/PC timetables said 160 mph limit for tests they said 140 mph on all the curves.

As of now, the test area is 27 miles, bracketed by 110 mph track on each end with no speed restrictions.

On the contrary Dutch, the plan is to run the Acelas at 160mph and work will start on the stretch of track that will support those speeds. There will be a lot of work that will have to get done before this happens. They already started to drop new rail on the ROW. Midway and Ham will get all new 80mph moves. Also NJT trains to Jersey Ave will have a new station off of the AC Delco lead and eeb trains from the lead will have a new flyover structure to access track #1 and that will be called Delco interlocking. In terms of the trainsets, either Amtrak will receive or has already received a waiver from the federales to operate at those speeds. You may not have heard of all of this but the actual employees have

The FRA certification for Acela is max 150, the Builder has it certified for 150, yes it was tested at 169 but every piece of equipment is tested in overspeed conditions.
So where did the new Max speed come from ??

Yes the FEDS set the guidelines and its also the feds who can change the guidelines. Are you to tell me you have never seen stuff get changed by the feds? Did I not mention the waiver?? Also I can almost guarantee that those sets were built for speeds higher then 150. Maybe all of the books released on them say 150 but I'm sure knowledgeable people know otherwise.