Amtrak Acela

Amtrak Acela

The Acela Express ( /əˈsɛlə/ ə-SEL-ə; colloquially abbreviated to Acela) is Amtrak's high-speed rail service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeast United States between Washington, D.C., and Boston via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City.

Acela Express trains are the only true high-speed trainsets in North America; the highest speed they attain is 150 mph (240 km/h), though their average is less than half that speed. The Acela has become popular with business travelers, and by some reckoning has captured over half of the market share of air or train travelers between Washington and New York. Between New York and Boston the Acela Express has up to a 54% share of the combined train and air market.

Acela trains use tilting technology which allows the train to travel at higher speeds on the sharply curved NEC without disturbing passengers, by lowering lateral centrifugal forces.

The Acela carried just under 3.4 million passengers in fiscal year 2012; second only to the somewhat slower Northeast Regional, which had over 8 million riders in FY 2012 In 2012, the Acela Express had a total revenue of US$508,080,295, up from $409,251,483 in 2009 and accounting for approximately 25% of all total revenue generated by Amtrak services (another 25% coming from Northeast regional traffic and 25% each for long-haul traffic and regional services throughout the rest of the country.