The four-hour Acela to Boston

[travelrobb]

I've noticed that all the northbound Acelas from New York to Boston are a minimum of 3:50 and some are 4:00 or more. Didn't use to be that way -- what gives?

[andrewjw]

Work on the New Haven line, probably. It'll be this way for a long time, until they finish all the bridge replacements.

[njt/mnrrbuff]

New Haven Line has been facing ongoing construction for years and it won’t be over for a while.

[kitn1mcc]

single track guilford to old saybrook

[hi55us]

Yeah what's especially horrible is 2154 - He's blocked at 4' 9" and given over an hour to cover PVD to BOS.

[jonnhrr]

2154 - 15 min to go from BBY to BOS???

[8th Notch]

The schedules have been heavily padded due to the track work being done on the Shoreline, this includes both Acelas and Regionals.

[Acela150]

Yeah what's especially horrible is 2154 - He's blocked at 4' 9" and given over an hour to cover PVD to BOS.

If one looks at the status of 2154 daily he will mostly arrive way ahead of schedule. Which is a result of a ton of padding which was already mentioned. But when 2154 is late.. He's late north of 10 minutes.

[mmi16]

When it comes to scheduling trains - any railroad - anywhere.

Schedule time and Running time are two different things. No train will ever be scheduled at running time.

When it comes to the NEC - it will be under reconstruction 'someplace' for the balance of the 21st Century.

Maintenance in the 21st Century is not a 8 man Section Gang taking care of their several mile section of train every day as it was in the previous 'hey day' of the PRR. Today it is all about highly mechanized gangs performing their specialized functions over several miles of track per day. Miles of track that then require speed restrictions for several days until the track integrity has been worked back to 'normal'.