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Some more concrete progress on the Acela 2s: https://www.railjournal.com/passenger/h ... -horizons/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The article claims that the first coach bodyshell has been produced at the Italian plant that has in the past produced the AGV (upon which the bodyshell design is based) and the Pendolino (upon which the tilt system is based) and has shipped out to Hornell. Haven't seen any official announcements or photographic evidence of that, though.

Although the article primarily focuses on the next-gen TGV that SNCF is ordering, there is lots of detail relating to the power cars that is equally applicable to the Acela 2s, which will be very similar.

Photographic evidence:

https://www.facebook.com/38075473867383 ... =3&theater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Like the nice big windows.

That car looks shorter than I thought it would be, even given that they aren’t full 85’ cars.

Thanks for the photo!

Just wait until they put it in water and it expands to its full size!

What did you expect, considering two Acela cars require 8 axels, while two Avelia cars will only have 4 axels supporting their weight. Stainless steel weighs pretty much the same no matter where it is made in the world. Much of the weight savings to allow using half as many axels is made by having a smaller car, in this case gained by length because the width and height are pretty much the same.

Looks about equivalent to a TGV coach

Matt Johnson wrote:Looks about equivalent to a TGV coach

Using Jacob style trucks also limits the lengths of the cars with clearances. The span between the front and rear trucks on a car have to be about the same to keep clearances the same on the inside of curves. The distance between the truck’s kingposts on an Acela train is around 59.5 feet, which should be the same for the entire length of a new Avelia car with the kingposts located between the cars.

gokeefe wrote:

east point wrote:So just don't make any hard statements of what will happen.

At this point it appears that at least WAS-NYP Amtrak will sellout all inventory that they make available in premium service.

The sellout history is so long and consistent that there is good reason to believe that demand permanently outstrips Amtrak's ability to build infrastructure.

In short they could use all available train slots (Amtrak only) on Acela and still not meet demand.

I've been on the NEC a bit lately and it amazes me how much they sell out. For example, the 9:15 train south out of Providence, just a regional, utterly packed on Sunday AM.

I wish they could do this with the Detroit line, and bump frequency to 5-6x/day in each direction.

I’d also be interested in Alstom bidding the Regional car contract with a triple-car articulated unit based on the Avelia cars.

I feel like I would want once an hour you could do an all coach or just stick one Biz car all coach bilevel Super Regional to deal with demand, like how the TGV Duplex/E4 exists

In much the "Solomonesque" manner in which I administer the site (that's self-deprecating humor, to be clear!), I'm splitting the topic for future discussion:

Avelia: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=168906" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Acela: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=168907" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;