In this month’s hot take, we catch up with a travel expert about the recent unveiling of Amtrak’s next-generation Acela service and how it proves just how far behind the times America’s rail system remains.
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Amtrak NextGen Acela service made its inaugural run along the Northeast Corridor in late August. Celebratory parties were held, and rave reviews poured in about the improved quality, style, and onboard experience of the new train cars manufactured by Alstom, which also produces France’s TGV high-speed trains. And boy, these NextGen trains sure are nice. A nice, big embarrassment.
The improvements with NextGen come in the form of onboard amenities we either already should have had, or that gild the lily without moving the needle. More comfortable seating and more sweeping window views are perfectly cromulent, and yes, Wi-Fi and USB charging are much needed. The grab-and-go food selection is indeed a vast improvement—though I don’t know why Amtrak thought that rec league, stadium-grade concessions were acceptable prior to this.
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Much of this story was written while on board a NextGen train from Washington, D.C. to New York. A nearby passenger picked up a phone call from his pal Bruce, and offered this unprompted, honest-to-goodness statement.
“The trains, in my view, are an embarrassment in the United States. Having ridden trains this summer around Paris, this is like riding a bucking bronco.” I swear to you, good reader, he could never have known the very document open on my laptop diagonally across the aisle.
There’s just nothing next about NextGen. To the rest of the world, these are last gen. The increased speed is negligible, and that’s all that anyone cares about. NextGen service has an increased maximum speed of 160 miles per hour. That’s up a paltry 10 mph from Acela’s standard top speed of 150 mph. But more to the point, that max speed can be reached on less than 8% of its flagship route due to track conditions. It’s a small-scale increase that can hardly even be put to use.
Congratulations, Amtrak, and welcome to what might have been considered industry-leading rail service circa 1963 — one year before Japan first introduced its Shinkansen bullet trains, that is.
What NextGen Could & Should Be
I want a fast and reliable train. Period. Frequent scheduling and reasonable pricing would be welcomed. Amtrak NextGen doesn’t fix any of these longstanding issues with Amtrak.
If I’m being greedy, I’d like to know my track number sometime earlier than 10 minutes before departure, so I don’t have to scramble with the masses and line up like a lunatic at the very last second. Imagine approaching a track at leisure, taking the precise assigned spot where you know your car will stop, and waiting until the exact moment the train will be guaranteed to arrive.
All of which happens in Japan and much of Europe; in many cases, this information is provided to you at booking, often months in advance. Not while you scan the displays at Moynihan in a state of desperate anxiety before running into a just-formed line like a crowd of paparazzi frantically queuing up outside of a restaurant, they heard some A-list celebrity was preparing to leave.
I’ve ridden on a fast, clean, efficient bullet train in Laos, of all places. And yeah, China paid for it. You know what? At this point, I’m willing to have China build our infrastructure as well. We’ve sold our American souls for worse things. Bring on the Belt and Road Initiative.
This isn’t to say it’s Amtrak’s fault. There’s been no investment. The infrastructure is wildly and in fact dangerously old and outdated, operating on century-old technology. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated a combined $66 billion to Amtrak. Bridges, tunnels, and stations will be replaced or upgraded, but it’s not as if new tracks that can accommodate superior trains are being laid down. The system is what it is, in other words. It’s a bandage over a seeping wound.
It’s worth looking into a specific comparison to see how flat NextGen falls. Tokyo to Hiroshima is about a 500-mile journey. Direct Shinkansen service is bookable for the route with trips ranging between 3.5 and 4 hours in duration. The trains run about every 15 minutes during peak times, and on a recent day when I searched for pricing, they cost $133.
Washington, D.C. to Boston is a 450-mile drive. NextGen train service between the two cities has a scheduled time of 7 hours and 5 minutes. I cannot stress this enough: for some unholy reason, the trip is 11 minutes longer than the “quickest” traditional Acela departure running the same route on the same day. Huh? Glad we got those sweet new trains!
Including traditional Acela and NextGen service, there were a grand total of eight departures on a weekday. Tickets a month in advance started from $217 for the lowest fare business seats and ranged up to $526. Prices skyrocket further on short-notice bookings. Shinkansen fares, meanwhile, remained within a few bucks of $133 whether I was searching for today, tomorrow, next week, or next month. Did I mention they run every 15 minutes? And get you there in half the time?
Then there’s the reliability to consider. Japanese bullet trains operate on a precise schedule and are the epitome of dependability. I’ve ridden dozens without arriving more than a few minutes before or after a scheduled ETA. Amtrak ETAs are like plumber appointments; you can expect to arrive within a theoretical four-hour window on your chosen day.
To be fair, though, both systems are devout about their timetables: Shinkansen trains are religiously on time. On Amtrak, arriving at your scheduled ETA is considered a sanctified miracle.
The current Shinkansen trains aren’t in their final iteration, either. Like an episode of the country’s beloved Dragonball Z, they are still powering up to reach a new form. Japan has been steadfast about improving its train service throughout the decades. When the Shinkansen debuted in 1964, it topped out at 130 miles per hour. Today it hits 200 mph. Not complacent with that, the country has long been developing its SCMaglev service, which has been tested at speeds up to 375 mph. In practice during operation, it’s planned to top out at a mere 314 mph.
That’s almost twice as fast as Amtrak’s NextGen, on a purpose-built rail system that will actually enable the train to reach those speeds. Imagine D.C. to Boston in an hour and a half. That’s next gen; and Amtrak’s NextGen ain’t that.
