mtuandrew wrote:In addition, the original poster posited that Amtrak would also use such equipment.As the OP in question, I actually hadn't thought about it either way. I mentioned the NEC mainly because AFAIK the NEC uses a different voltage and frequency from some of the other NJ transit lines (IIRC, the line through Summit is 25 kV 60hz.) AMTRAK seems to prefer locomotive-hauled trains over EMUs, anyway, for reasons that have been explored elsewhere (and so don't need rehashing here.)
I'm still unclear about exactly what the problem is with having both high acceleration and high top speed. Is it:
a. Not technically feasable, or
b. Feasable, but (significantly) more expensive than having just one or the other?