Another try at Acela non-stop service

OK so a non stop. What is the Maximum authorized station speed for Acela thru ---------
1. Newark ?
2. Trenton ?
3. PHL ? Too bad Amtrak cannot use the high line bridge
5. Wilmington ?
6. Baltimore ?

Would be interesting to figure the gain in time not having to loose time slowing and acccelerating

1. Newark: 30 mph max?
2. Trenton: 110 mph I believe
3. PHL: 30 mph or less
4. Wilmington: 30 mph I'm guessing
6. Baltimore: 30 mph

west point wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:49 pm OK so a non stop. What is the Maximum authorized station speed for Acela thru ---------

3. PHL ? Too bad Amtrak cannot use the high line bridge

Would the Acela run through the station or on the outside tracks?

I think it would have to crawl on the outside tracks. I'm pretty sure that using Track 3 northbound and Track 5 southbound would result in Clear indications through the station. Speed through the station itself would still probably be no more than 30, but Clear indications would not impose a speed restriction beginning two miles back. The primary time savings would be achieved by having no dwell time.

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:37 pm 1. Newark: 30 mph max?
2. Trenton: 110 mph I believe
3. PHL: 30 mph or less
4. Wilmington: 30 mph I'm guessing
6. Baltimore: 30 mph

hard to believe skipping philly (and newark) is worthwhile on that 430 PM NB departure, that's a good slot.

Even without a Philadelphia stop, Newark would be almost a necessity for passengers to or from the Financial District. Just consider walking across the platform (eastbound) or down the ramp (westbound) at Newark compared with transferring to or from the 7th Avenue subway.

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 2:42 pm Even without a Philadelphia stop, Newark would be almost a necessity for passengers to or from the Financial District. Just consider walking across the platform (eastbound) or down the ramp (westbound) at Newark compared with transferring to or from the 7th Avenue subway.

You describe a "DC goes to Wall St" trip, as served by every other Acela. And I mostly assume that Downtown NYC is still more of an employment destination and not much of a home origination.

This nonstop train serves the "Manhattan & Long Island residents make day trip to DC" market.

BTW, i assume more than half uses will end up combining one nonstop with one regular Acela, or even an NER.

Yes, NWK definitely provides an easy transfer for those people heading to Lower Manhattan but still, many people will probably still prefer to go all the way to NYP. If you are heading to Downtown Brooklyn, it’s actually better to take Amtrak all the way to NYP because you would only need to pay one subway fare rather than both Path and the subway. Plus, you only transfer once.

I hope this Amtrak Acela nonstop does well. It wasn’t a success years ago but with it heading to DC from NYP very early and then returning from DC in the late afternoon, hopefully the ridership will be better.

I prefer Newark when going downtown, path is preferable to the NYC subway. Of course since they are skipping over philly I wont be on it. Hopefully they are forced to add Philadelphia and nwk rather than add more non stop trains as they hope to do

Even the major IC trains of DB stop in the major cities enroute.

How about
NYP
Newark
Philadelphia
Baltimore
DC

SB, Newark is board only, Baltimore is discharge only
NB, reverse.

Then you have pressure from NJ and DE to add Trenton and Wilmington respectively, which isn’t a bad thing from a political or ridership perspective, and you’re back to where you started. Which, again, isn’t bad at all - it’s taking advantage of Amtrak’s strength of being able to make enroute stops in a concatenated corridor.

I’m intrigued by this “nonstop flight” by Acela. Let’s see how it turns out.

What are the populations of Trenton and Wilmington?

84, 913 and 70, 851 respectively.

Has any ACELA EVER stopped in Trenton....unless it broke down in the station?

Metropark YES;

Very few Regionals even stop in Trenton.

west point wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:49 pm OK so a non stop. What is the Maximum authorized station speed for Acela thru ---------

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:37 pm 1. Newark: 30 mph max?
2. Trenton: 110 mph I believe
3. PHL: 30 mph or less
4. Wilmington: 30 mph I'm guessing
6. Baltimore: 30 mph

rcthompson04 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 2:17 pm Would the Acela run through the station or on the outside tracks?

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 2:23 pm I think it would have to crawl on the outside tracks. I'm pretty sure that using Track 3 northbound and Track 5 southbound would result in Clear indications through the station. Speed through the station itself would still probably be no more than 30, but Clear indications would not impose a speed restriction beginning two miles back. The primary time savings would be achieved by having no dwell time.

It would really depend on the track layout around each station. I can see some issues:

• New Carrolton: Essentially two tracks served by an island, may need to cut down the speed.
• BWI: Center track, all tracks full speed.
• Baltimore: Four words. B-and-P-Tunnel. There's many outside tracks to work around existing trains, but the tunnel's 30 mph for a reason.
• Wilmington: SEPTA traffic.
• Philly: Depends on Amtrak traffic.
• Trenton: Four tracks all served by both SEPTA and NJT.
• Newark: NJT traffic.