by carajul
Took Acela from Phili to NYC. The Acela train was friggin flying and felt like we were on clouds. No noise and a nice soft ride.
I then took the Keystone Service from NYC to Harrisburg. We did get up to speeds of 125mph in areas of NJ but holy cow the silver amtrak cars were rattling and shaking all over the place especially thru interlockings. Felt every damn bump to the point I thought we were going to fly off the rails at time. I was actually a bit nervous at times. Can you even imagine what it was like for those people on the Chase, MD crash when they hit that CR loco with no warming at that speed I mean hooooly shit. How anyone walked away from that I have no idea. Acela much better at those speeds.
After leaving Phili on the Keystone line the train crawled at 10mph for 30 mins as we got behind a Septa local. Once free of that the speed limit is 80mph the whole way to Hburg. Nice trip but long. Same time as driving but didn't have to worry about fighting traffic, gas, or $50/day parking in NYC. I read that they upgraded the Keystone line and pax volume has doubled. Amtrak for sure should do a Phili to Allentown service.
Also noted lots of areas that Amtrak has removed track. Two and four track segments are gone where cat poles still exist overhead, especially just north of Phili station. But along the whole line too. The PRR had some serious trackage.
I then took the Keystone Service from NYC to Harrisburg. We did get up to speeds of 125mph in areas of NJ but holy cow the silver amtrak cars were rattling and shaking all over the place especially thru interlockings. Felt every damn bump to the point I thought we were going to fly off the rails at time. I was actually a bit nervous at times. Can you even imagine what it was like for those people on the Chase, MD crash when they hit that CR loco with no warming at that speed I mean hooooly shit. How anyone walked away from that I have no idea. Acela much better at those speeds.
After leaving Phili on the Keystone line the train crawled at 10mph for 30 mins as we got behind a Septa local. Once free of that the speed limit is 80mph the whole way to Hburg. Nice trip but long. Same time as driving but didn't have to worry about fighting traffic, gas, or $50/day parking in NYC. I read that they upgraded the Keystone line and pax volume has doubled. Amtrak for sure should do a Phili to Allentown service.
Also noted lots of areas that Amtrak has removed track. Two and four track segments are gone where cat poles still exist overhead, especially just north of Phili station. But along the whole line too. The PRR had some serious trackage.