Amtrak Branding NEC: Acela, Metroliner, Regional

[Backshophoss]

Starting on pg 42 of the sept'19 issue of Trains ,the "working title" is ACELA 21 for the service,per Amtrak.
The Acela II's will be an upgrade from the Acela I's
However,NO bar stools on the Acela II cafe car,and a possible return of "Bar Cart" style service at the seat!

Hinting of possible Non-stop service from Boston,NY City,and Wash DC!

[gokeefe]

I suspect more people would still recognize the name and reputation of the Super Chief than would Acela....

Indeed they might and same goes for the comment with regards to the 20th Century Limited.

That being said by "success" I had two items in mind, revenue and ridership. Acela has them both covered several times over. Even adjusting for population at the time Acela's utilization rate is very high. The sheer number of trainsets, frequency of service, and operational profotability is what is so impressive to me.

[gokeefe]

Hinting of possible Non-stop service from Boston,NY City,and Wash DC!

The airlines are not going to be looking forward to trying to compete with this. This service offerring could fundamentally end business travel by air between Washington and New York.

Who would ever bother with going to the airport and dealing with all of the hassle ever again just to use nearly the same amount of time?

It would also have a major impact on the Boston - New York market where Amtrak still has a smaller share of the air-rail travel than the airlines.

[Greg Moore]

It's hard to say how airlines will react to this. My understanding is that while the former Eastern shuttle was quite profitable due to the cost of the walk-up fares, in the recent decades, it was not quite a great deal. The problem is that the NYC area airports are overcrowded and there's a limited number of take-off and landing slots. The short to medium range slots just don't make the airlines enough profits when you consider the cost of landing fees. In many cases, they'd simply rather get rid of these flights and replace them with longer-haul flights.

As I understand it, the airlines didn't weep too much in losing some of the NYC-WAS traffic as it allowed them to shift those landing slots to longer range, more profitable flights.

(and as a tangent, I looked up flights between Albany and NYC and there appear to be like 2 direct flights a day, vs 13 trains. It's pretty clear to me that if folks want to travel to the state capital, they're going to take the train. )

[gokeefe]

My sense of the situation is that the remaining air passengers are premium level customers on corporate travel budgets, some of whom may be flying first class. One overlooked aspect Amtrak's Acela fleet expansion is the amount of new FirstClass inventory that will come online. It's not as though the existing inventory will just get spread a little thinner across a new schedule.

Acela has been so heavily sold out for so long that there's probably an entire market of people who may not even consider it any more because they assume it's not available. Amtrak is going to get another opportunity to win these travelers and when they do it will be a huge payday for them.

[bostontrainguy]

This is an Acela vs. airplane comparison from Amtrak's website:

Why Acela_ _ Amtrak.pdf

(74.42 KiB) Downloaded 115 times

https://www.amtrak.com/route-content/why-acela.html

Not so sure it is very convincing or how accurate the $678 airfare is (I have never flown New York to D.C. - First Class maybe?), or the 2 hr 45 min Acela trip time, but it is interesting.

[Backshophoss]

What could help Boston-NYC nonstop is the Inland route taking the Regional trains off the NEC and using the freed up slots.

[Rockingham Racer]

What could help Boston-NYC nonstop is the Inland route taking the Regional trains off the NEC and using the freed up slots.

Agreed, and can't come soon enough. Double the track between Worcester and E. Springfield, and speed things up on the B&A,

[MACTRAXX]

Metroliner was a cool name, but the train sets are long gone, as is the original Metroliner operator, PC, who departed the scene rather ignominiously. All that's left are a few cab cars.

But Amtrak still defends the trademark by keeping at least one in-service Amfleet liveried as “Metroliner” (I don’t know about whether the cabs are branded as such too.) Never know when that name will come in handy.

JS and MTUA: The current car with the Metroliner name is the #9800 Cab/Conference Car.

Keep in mind the name "Metroliner Service" was used by Amtrak for the better part of 20 years after the MU cars were
"exiled" to Harrisburg service in the early 1980s. Later in that decade the Metroliner MU cars were becoming more unreliable
and were being hauled by electric motors (even diesels were used at times) before they were finally fully retired.

The conversion of the Metroliner MU cars to cab control cars has been successful...Hard to believe these cars are around
50 years old currently thanks to their solid Budd-built stainless steel car bodies...MACTRAXX

[Jeff Smith]

Absolutely nothing wrong with the Metroliner brand... it was maybe the one good thing from the PRR/PC days, and Amtrak transitioned it successfully. I would think they could resurrect it somewhere, but how and where? The regionals could definitely use a "refresh".

[rcthompson04]

There has been talk of Amtrak getting EMUs. Any EMU service would be a good place for that name.

[mtuandrew]

It would also be a great name for an all-first-class conventional train on the Corridor. Limited stops, 1+1 seating, complimentary refreshments served at the seat, power and USB outlets at the laptop-size seatback table, and true high-speed internet with individual modems in each car.

[gokeefe]

Metroliner presents problems because "as operated" it was a premium service with business and first class accomodations. That tier has been displaced by Acela and Amtrak appears averse to diluting their flagship brand. In some ways the intentionally generic Northeast Regional serves them far better and clearly markets the service as the second (or even third) tier option.

The Acela Nonstop service creates a series of interesting problems for Amtrak including how to manage equipment succession. Who would ever want to be riding the non stop service in an older trainset?

I suppose initially it wouldn't be a big deal but after a while the highest fares are going to expect the best trains.

[bostontrainguy]

Anderson once said that airlines refresh their interiors all the time and most people have no idea that they may be flying in an old or new plane.

[Jeff Smith]

Updated the title, as we've expanded to not just Acela. I would like to keep it to the Northeast and NEC trains, though.