So yeah, I envision the "Second Stage" NEC to operating Second Generation Metroliners capable 145-150 mph (Though average speed will still be around 110 mph south of New York, and maybe 70 or so north of it). Meanwhile, California will be using Third Generation HSR equipment from Japan capable of 180-185 mph (With a much higher average, around 150 mph). This will be how things are circa 1985.
Unless the original trainsets are so popular in California that somebody
forgets to order the 3rd-gen trainsets.
Look at how, for example, France still runs TGV trainsets from the 1980s, and even in Japan the preference still remains for running older trainsets wherever possible.
Here in the Bay Area, BART has a station in one of the world's largest necropolises.
Point taken.
I've had this idea for a express service (using HSR trains) that would operate between LAX and Ontario International airport behind security. I think this idea could be put into play for Newark and JFK.
That would be cool.
Anyway - OK, so with apologies to Air Canada, Eurostar, SNCF, Renfe, and a bunch of other people, here’s my conception for Acela done right based around the same 1990s design timeframe as OTL. Now, IIRC when Amtrak conceived the Acela service, it was more than just simply a rebranding of its NEC services or even the HSR service, but – much like Saturn for GM, as I’ve mentioned before – it was a reconception of and an attempt at improving Amtrak’s existing NEC services. No wonder, for example, why during the Acela branding campaign early on much focus was on it being “rail travel for the 21st century”. The trouble, of course, was that due to Amtrak’s limited budget the vision for Acela was well ahead of its time, to the point where there was mass rider confusion between the HSR Acela Express (with its dedicated trainset, with its well-known early reliability problems) and the non-HSR Acela Regional (which was basically “remodeled”
Amfleet equipment with the HHP-8 locomotive, with the latter’s
own reliability problems). That was a big source of the trouble with Acela from the very beginning. To reconceptualize the NEC as a result, the first thing which has to be done is a clearer distinction between HSR and non-HSR services.
As such, in this case Acela is used for HSR services almost exclusively and NortheastDirect for non-HSR services. NortheastDirect can retain Business Class and Coach Class with First Class sleeper service (the latter as part of the “Twilight Shoreliner” overnight train), and here NortheastDirect also covers the Empire and Keystone Corridors; maybe even the Vermonter, Ethan Allen Express (including the extension to Burlington), and Downeaster as well (of which the *Downeaster would be the only NortheastDirect line isolated from the rest of the network, due to its terminus at Boston’s North Station (rather than South Station, where virtually all of Amtrak’s service originate)). NortheastDirect would thus continue much of Amtrak’s service in the Northeast, though would indirectly benefit from any improvements to the track and even the “experience” courtesy of Acela (i.e. improved amenities); thus NortheastDirect would be a much-improved version of conventional Amtrak service and hence fulfills the same role of OTL’s Acela Regional (currently, ironically enough, given a “compromise” brand, in my opinion, of “Northeast Regional”). Note that, as already stated, the one exception to the HSR/non-HSR distinction would be the Clocker, which would be rebranded the Acela Commuter (as in OTL). The Clocker, in fact, really does not fit in well with the regular NEC services (though it was not unique back when Amtrak started up in the 1970s, when reading the old timetables). Why? Unlike the reconceptualized NortheastDirect, the Clocker was an unreserved economy-class only train only operating during rush hour – and yet still remained popular. As a stand-alone service, it would be perfect; as part of the HSR network, whilst not HSR itself, it’s fast enough that it could pass. Acela Commuter, therefore, would be the only portion of the Acela network which would receive the same treatment Acela Regional got in OTL, and in fact Acela Commuter would be integrated into the Acela system in terms of travel classes, ticket fares, brand identity, and the like.
To make it easier to type out the different Acela sub-services, I'll use the same abbreviations Amtrak used with Acela in OTL, back when it was brand new. Therefore, from now on Acela Express will be Acela EX, Acela Regional will be Acela RS, and Acela Commuter will be Acela CS throughout this post. As stated earlier, Acela CS is the only non-HSR service in the Acela network, whilst Acela EX and Acela RS will be dedicated HSR services. As I'm seeing it, Acela RS would be as fast as Acela EX is in OTL and even follow the same coastal route between Boston and Washington; having said that, I could see Acela RS service expand beyond this to include more destinations – including connections to Canada. As an HSR service, Acela RS could be expanded to include Toronto (via the Empire Corridor from NYC) and Montréal (from both NYC and Boston). Maybe even extending the Keystone Corridor to include Pittsburgh – and thus include Pittsburgh into the Acela network via Acela RS. Acela EX, however, would maintain its OTL “premium” HSR cachet and remain a NEC-only service between Boston, NYC, and DC. In keeping with the latest proposals on next-gen HSR that Amtrak has proposed (and I
know deh74 would go after me for this), in order for Acela EX to have a higher speed levels (and thus shorten travel times considerably), the train would almost need a separate track for the Boston-NYC leg. Amtrak's current OTL plans call for using the MBTA Commuter Rail’s Franklin Line for this purpose, going as far south as Woonsocket, RI (of which connections to Providence could be ameliorated via collaboration between the MBTA, RIDOT, and the P&W), and then dedicated track and/or existing (mostly under-utilized) freight rail track from Woonsocket to Hartford, then following the Hartford-Springfield Line Shuttle to New Haven, and following the NEC from there (and even there, Amtrak's plans show the service as being more or less a diagonal line from Hartford to NYC – who knows what they are thinking?); I'll have Acela EX follow more or less the same route, which means reconstructing the Franklin Line, raising the platforms on the Commuter Rail stations where possible to comply with the ADA, and building new track and electrifying existing track.
Getting back to Acela RS, an advantage to its wide network is that within the service it could specialize quite a bit – almost like the “airline within an airline” concept Delta and United tried with Song and Ted, respectively, to compete with jetBlue (and even Air Canada, from where I'm taking the concept from and give my apologies in more ways than one, against certain domestic competition). As I see it, there are three main sub-services within the main Acela RS service – Acela RS Tango, Acela RS Jazz, and Acela RS Lunéa. Acela RS Jazz would be the normal HSR service, Acela RS Lunéa would be overnight HSR sleeper service, and Acela RS Tango would be affordable no-frills economy-class service on major busy routes in the Acela RS network (taking the Acela Commuter concept and applying it to HSR, essentially) as well as seasonal HSR service to Vermont. There may be more if needed, but those three are the core sub-brands. For parallels with Air Canada, Acela RS Tango and Acela RS Jazz are modelled on the defunct Air Canada Tango and Air Canada Jazz (the latter now existing as Air Canada Express), whilst Acela RS Lunéa borrows the name from a former SNCF brand for its overnight services whilst modelled on Renfe's Elipsos “trainhotel” (it's actually pretty neat; sadly it's limited only to Madrid-Lisbon, when only a couple of years ago it had service to Paris and Geneva and an extensive domestic network).
Another area of Acela which could have used more creativity in OTL, and which (as you can probably) I'm liberally applying for TTL, is also reimagining the travel classes (and hence the ticket fares). With the exception of the Club Car (originally used on the Metroliner), the travel classes are going to be renamed and the interiors redesigned, closely following that Acela corporate design article I linked to earlier. For daytime, therefore, Coach, Business, and First Classes would be renamed to suit Acela – and once again, more apologies to Air Canada as part of it actually follows their ticket fare policy and, in fact, using old names they used for economy class and business class, which I reappropriated for different purposes. On Acela EX, similar to Eurostar, First Class will be split into two different First Classes to suit two different markets, the leisure travel market and the business travel market (though budget-conscious business travellers are more than welcome to use the first class designed for leisure travel); Eurostar's Standard Premier and Business Premier are translated into TTL's Acela as Hospitality Service and Executive Service. Acela RS trains may offer First Class outside of the NYC-DC route, though it would be limited to Toronto-NYC, Montréal-NYC, and Boston-NYC (here due to Acela RS following the OTL coastal route); on Acela RS, First Class would be renamed as Club. Following SNCF vis-à-vis their ticketing policy with the TGV, Club tickets have 4 different types depending on the type of seat chosen – Club Quattro, for 4 seats facing a table; Club Duo, for 2 seats facing a table; Duo, for 2 seats facing seatbacks (though I'm open to renaming it, if it's too confusing); and Solo, for a single seat facing a seatback. Business Class on both Acela EX and Acela RS would be renamed Latitude, and on Acela RS Coach class retains the reserved/unreserved distinction. Unreserved Coach class would be renamed Encore, and Reserved Coach (which, for Acela purposes, would be branded as being “designed with frequent travellers in mind”, with a choice of a seat in Latitude but with economy-class service or advanced seat selection in the economy-class section) would be renamed Flex. Acela CS, of course, has only Encore. For Acela RS Lunéa, in keeping with I had said earlier about retaining the slumbercoaches (known as couchettes in Europe), these would also remain here. Now, traditionally American slumbercoaches had single and double rooms, whilst European couchettes tend to have either 4 bunks (the so-called 1st-class couchettes) or 6 bunks (the so-called 2nd-class couchettes). Tough decision here. (Any ideas?) In any case, the Encore/Flex/Latitude distinction applies here, and instead of a bedsheet and blanket, a lightweight sleeping bag is provided instead (a neat idea
also borrowed from the SNCF). For sleepers, it's actually easy – because,
as I'm following Renfe's trainhotel concept almost to the letter here, Renfe has the solution, with Turista (Euro 2nd class; 4 berths with washbasin), Preferente (Euro 1st class; 1 or 2 berths with washbasin + breakfast), and Gran Clase (Euro premium 1st class; 1 or 2 berths with shower and toilet + breakfast and dinner). Here, Turista becomes Acela RS Lunéa’s Hospitality Service, Preferente becomes Acela RS Lunéa’s Executive Service, and Gran Clase becomes Acela RS Lunéa’s Executive First.
Finally, as part of improving the NEC services, Acela would go for all new equipment. I'd love to reuse the HHP-8 locomotive for Acela RS and Acela CS in TTL, if it can be made reliable from the get-go (which isn't actually hard – Bombardier's people are smart, and surely they could fix the problems before deployment). As stated earlier, Acela CS is the only Acela service which will retain Amfleet equipment, so Acela EX and Acela RS are free to go all new. In that sense, Acela RS would use the same Talgo Pendular carriages currently used in OTL for Amtrak's Cascades service in the Pacific Northwest, mated with an HHP-8 locomotive. Acela EX, on the other hand, would use the ICE 2 trainset which during the 1990s is just getting under construction for Deutsche Bahn; if Acela EX is popular enough, then
maybe – if it can fit in Penn Station and/or Grand Central – the Eurotrain could be introduced. The Eurotrain is pretty cool – it's an ICE 2 locomotive mated to TGV Duplex carriages, as a DB/SNCF joint bid for HSR service in Taiwan. Eventually, the ICE 3/Siemens Velaro will be introduced to Acela EX, which will allow for more Acela EX runs.
How does that sound?
