New Jersey Transit and Acela Express Hamilton, NJ to Providence, RI and Return
October 27, 2001
by
After 10 months of revenue service, the time had finally
come for Acela Express to meet its toughest test yet. I was
going to take a ride. One thing after another had delayed
this inevitable check-out the new train joy ride, but a firm
announcement to the family that Saturday, October 27 would
be the day for Dad’s self-indulgent field trip set the works
into unstoppable motion.
The plan was to drive from home (Cherry Hill, NJ) to the New
Jersey Transit Hamilton station, take NJT to Metropark, and
catch Acela 2250 from Metropark to Providence. I would bum
around Providence for about an hour and a half, catch Acela
2291 back to New York, and finally NJT back to Hamilton. Who
was going join me on this historic occasion? No one. I have
a family that is not enamored with trains. To my wife, son,
and daughter, trains are ridden for required transportation
purposes only and hold no inherent entertainment value
whatsoever. I proffered the obligatory invitations for any
or all of the guys to join me, but as expected each offer
was politely declined (with a look that clearly said, "Are
you nuts?). This, as expected, would be a solo jaunt. My
Visa account is thankful, however.
On Saturday, October 27, dawn broke over the Garden State
with bright sun and a nice, crisp autumn breeze. It was a
train rider’s sky. At 9:00am I gassed-up the Miata, waved
goodbye to my smiling wife (smiling because she was staying
home), and headed 33 miles north on I-295 to Hamilton. For
those of us in South Jersey (and even Southeastern PA, for
that matter), Hamilton is great park-and-ride station for
New Jersey Transit’s Northeast Corridor service to
Manhattan. Located just north of Trenton off exit 65B of I-
295, there are several thousand parking spots at $3 per day.
Round trip to NYC is only $13.50. For less than $30 my wife
and I can go to Manhattan on NJT. The same trip on Amtrak
out of Philadelphia would run $180 (not including parking),
and that’s on plain, unreserved Amtrak coach; not Acela
Express or the Metroliner.
NJT 7822 rolled up the three mile straightaway from Trenton
into Hamilton right on time at 10:06am sporting what looked
like 50 stainless steel MU’s (probably about 10, but it sure
is an impressively long train). The train was already
crowded with transfers from SEPTA’s R7 line from
Philadelphia (they didn’t want to pay $90 round trip
either). I grabbed an available aisle seat and settled in
for the 30 minute trek to Metropark. The trip was underway!
If there are less attractive passenger rail cars in the US
than the NJT Arrow MU’s, I would not like to see them. Ugly,
uncomfortable brown seats; dirty, sticky floors; scratched
and hazy plastic windows, and drab lighting make these cars
simply depressing to ride. You just have to keep repeating,
"the price is right, the price is right". But, besides just
the low price, the service is also frequent and reliable,
and just a couple of minutes off schedule, we arrived at
Metropark in Iselin, NJ.
Ah, Metropark. A cheap-and-dirty highway access station off
the Garden State Parkway and not far from the Exit 11 of the
Turnpike. Metropark was built in the early 70’s (I think;
but it might have been the late 60’s) to entice New Jersey
suburbanites to ride the old, original Metroliner. It was
very successful, has spawned several similar stations on the
NEC, and has also been the catalyst for some major
commercial development in the surrounding area. Metropark is
now a big-time NJT stop and is still a strong Amtrak player.
But this station really needs a complete rebuild. It is
literally falling apart, an offshoot of cheap construction,
years of neglect, and heavy use. The platforms are slowly
disintegrating, the canopies look like a good wind would
blow them apart, and the station building of this major stop
is the size of a small 7-11, and about as attractive.
A quick climb down from the platform level to the grand hall
of Metropark Station, a couple of buttons pushed on the lone
Amtrak Quik-Trak ticket machine, and behold: my internet
reservation of the night before took the form of real,
touch-em, feel-em tickets. Then, I climbed back up to the
eastbound platform to watch the goings on while I waited for
Acela. I had about 35 minutes until the scheduled 11:19am
arrival of Acela 2250. At about 10:50 a monstrous eastbound
(toward NY) dead-head move of a lone HHP pulling at least 15
Amfleet cars of all descriptions and paint schemes pulled up
and stopped on track 2 (eastbound, center track). I’ve
never seen so many Amfleet cars on one train; and all empty.
Metropark is on a curve and both ends of the train were out
of sight from the station. While it sat out of the way on
#2, Amtrak 152 first, and then NJT 7824 pulled through,
stopped, and departed on #1. Finally, the Amfleet dead-head
move lumbered out. Excitement mounted with a station PA
announcement and a toot of a horn from around the curve.
Right on-time at 11:19am, Acela 2250 for Boston pulled in.
It was now show time.
So, what was my first impression as I walked on Acela?
Atmosphere. There is a solitude and informal elegance about
Acela that makes the experience of being on-board very, very
pleasant. My second impression: crowded. Belying my belief
that only business travelers on expense accounts (and
deranged rail fans) would pay for Acela leaving weekend runs
empty, this train was at least 75% full. Non-rail fan types
were paying real money, and their own money, to ride Acela.
I grabbed an available aisle seat and next noticed the seats
themselves: very, very comfortable. In fact, Acela has the
most comfortable seating I’ve ever experienced in travel,
including domestic first class air. Now lets talk windows.
Unlike the air raid bunker slits that are called windows on
Amfleet I, these windows are HUGE. And, they are real
laminated safety glass, not plastic. The optical quality is
superb. The big windows greatly enhance the experience of
riding this train. Trains are for sightseeing, there are
things to see, so lets let people look out. Acela does just
that. And quiet! After the snaps, bangs, squeaks, and
squawks of NJT, Acela is like a library. I loved it from
minute one.
Let me talk about interior ambiance for a moment. Interior
designers will tell you that the success of any public space
is dependent upon the feeling that space imparts on the
occupants. To that end, Acela is a huge success. The design
of the interior, including the color scheme, the wall
treatments, the carpeting, the enclosed luggage racks, and
the large windows provides a feeling of comfort, security,
and spaciousness that Amfleet does not even approach. You
feel good just sitting on Acela, and that is no accident. It
is the product of well thought-out design. My hat is off to
the designers of the interior of these cars.
Before you could say "lets go", Acela was on the move and I
was heading up very familiar rails occupying a very
unfamiliar environment. My reason for boarding at Metropark
rather than New York was to hedge against seating problems
in case the trains were actually crowded. That turned out to
be a good move. I figured the passenger turnover in NY is
probably at least 80% so if I started west of NY, even with
a crowded train, I could shift to a good seat at Penn
Station before the boarding passengers arrive. In fact, I
was able to make my move at Newark, shifting to a right-side
window seat for the upcoming coastline view. At New York,
with an on-time arrival, almost the entire passenger load
left, and a nearly sold-out passenger load for New England
boarded. It is like two trains using one trainset. So that’s
why they need 15 minutes for the NY stop! Departure from
Penn Station was on time at 12:03.
The ride east from Penn Station is relatively unfamiliar
territory for me. I’ve only been east of New York by rail
twice in my life: once at night on the old Montrealer, and
once recently on the Metro North New Haven line out of Grand
Central. The view from the Hell Gate Bridge was spectacular
though those big windows, and the run through the Bronx up
to Metro North territory is classic east coast urban with
this shiny, modern train gliding along an old rail line with
trash strewn all over the right-of-way. Once on Metro North
you see both the promise and limitations of Acela. The
promise is the ease and gracefulness of the train on the
old, twisting NYNH&H trackage. The limitation is the
constraint of Acela’s promise of speed within the reality of
the infrastructure. It is like driving a Porsche down a city
street with traffic lights and stops signs at every corner.
It’s still a great car but the road won’t permit anyone to
see how great.
The Metro North territory was like riding on a museum
railroad with the ornate electrification structures and old-
style catenary. Scenery is a little sparse, but it was still
interesting to pass through all the towns that now basic run
one into another. Occasional views of Long Island Sound
provided a hint of things to come. This Acela made one stop
along the Metro North route at Stamford, and finally came to
the end of the MN tracks and the old electrification at New
Haven. New Haven also brought the end of most on-board lunch
options in the Cafe with the last sandwich having been sold.
Despite the lack of sandwiches (only breakfast items and
snacks left), the line for the Cafe was still a car-length
long, and with just one harried attendant, the wait looked
like 15 minutes easy. Deciding a 15 minute wait for chips
and a soda was not a good use of my time, I abandoned
on-board meal aspirations and decided to tough it out to
Providence. My impression of the Acela cafe is that it
offers little improvement over the service and selection of
the conventional Amtrak "sandwich, snacks, and beverage"
service. I was hoping for better.
East of New Haven we re-entered Amtrak territory and the new
25kV, constant-tension electrification. Boy, do they have a
lot of catenary structures up there. The old PRR
electrification used a 250 foot standard span which is about
21 per mile. Typically east of New Haven, the new Amtrak
catenary has well over 30 structures per mile, and in some
areas with tight curvature, I saw over 50 structures per
mile. That is about 100 foot spans. As a professional in the
field, I can tell you that is a lot of structures. In case
you are wondering, I did not count structures at 80mph. The
structures are stenciled sequentially by mile and count,
with each side of a portal counted as one column. So pole
number 104-64 is the 64th column leg of mile 104, or the
32nd portal structure. That is my obscure engineering tip of
the day.
The urban views of southwestern Connecticut now became the
rural views of the eastern Connecticut coastline. The ride
in eastern Connecticut was truly scenic, and not at all what
one visualizes when thinking of the Northeast Corridor. We
zigzagged along beaches and coves, and crossed over rivers
and inlets. This was really New England. It was a beautiful
ride, but certainly not a high-speed ride. We also
encountered an amazing number of highway grade crossings
(one would have been amazing, there were maybe eight or
more). Somehow the concept of high-speed rail and grade
crossings seems incongruous. In eastern Connecticut it is
reality.
After the hugging the coast, Acela turned inland and
something remarkable happened: this "high-speed" train
actually ran at high speed. Except for the short stretch
from Metropark to Newark, this was the first fast portion of
my "high-speed" train ride. Unlike reports from the early
days of Acela, there was no on-board announcement of 150mph
operation, but it is easy to tell when it happens. It is
quite impressive. It is also kind of a tease. It is like the
train is saying "See what you’re missing with that lousy
right-of-way you’re making me use!" Not long after the
euphoria of Acela’s sprint through Rhode Island, we arrived
in Providence at 2:53; one minute early. My trip eastbound
was over, but good old 2250 went on to Boston where, after
two departing-passenger only stops at Route 128 and Back
Bay, it arrived 20 minutes early. The weekend Acela
schedules are heavily padded.
I went only as far as Providence to provide enough cushion
to catch 2291 back to New York. Acela 2291 leaves Boston at
4:00pm, only 11 minutes after 2250’s scheduled arrival.
Eleven minutes was just too tight to go all the way to
Boston with any confidence in making the return train (as it
turned out, I would have made it easily). Turning at
Providence gave me a one hour, forty minute layover. That
was enough time for a stroll around downtown and some lunch
-- and not in that order. I was starved.
The Amtrak station is in downtown Providence, and downtown
Providence is really quite nice. Providence Place Mall, one
block from the Amtrak station, has a terrific third-floor
food court and that was my ticket to some inexpensive
dining. Following lunch, and after what the Aussies call a
"walkabout" in central Providence, I meandered back to the
station for Acela 2291 and the ride home. The Providence
station is a modern building set over the tracks sort of
like a fancy subway stop. It is reasonably new, has a domed
roof waiting area, and is a pretty successful attempt to
build a functional and sort-of stylish train station for a
mid-sized city.
I headed down to the platform level about 10 minutes prior
to 2291’s 4:35pm scheduled arrival and a bizarre thing
happened. Entering from the west was a lone HHP and at least
15 Amfleet cars of various descriptions and paint schemes.
This was the very same dead-head move I had seen at
Metropark just prior to 2250’s arrival, and now here it was
in Providence just prior to 2291. It was like a ghost train
haunting my trip. Well, after all, it was almost Halloween.
New York bound Acela 2291 arrived on time at 4:35 and was
about 25% full. That is probably a decent load for a slack
travel time like Saturday afternoon. I took a left side
window seat in the first Business Class car (second car of
the set). At the front of the car was a group of about ten
New York City firefighters who were returning from a funeral
in Boston. Seeing those men reawakened the reality of the
nightmare that occurred in September and the thousands of
really good people who were lost. These guys were having a
fine old time on Acela, however, and it was good to hear
their jokes and laughter. If they don’t deserve some escape,
who does? And, they loved Acela. On at least a half a dozen
occasions I heard one of them exclaim, "This is a great
train!" By the way, the cafe car ran out of beer before New
London. Those guys really did love that train!
The train left Providence, and I began to retrace my route
home. I will take this opportunity to state some minor, nit-pick
peeves about Acela. First, the ride quality. It is
better than Amfleet, but not all that great. Lots of
jostles, shakes, and vibrations: much more than I had
anticipated. And the seat tray tables are cantilevered from
the seat ahead (a long reach) and this support is very
springy. When the shakes and jitters from the ride are at
just the right frequency, the tray table starts to hop up
and down. Whenever that happens, which is quite often,
everything on the tray moves about. In order to eat from the
tray table (I had the cheese and cracker snack and a soda on
the return trip), you constantly have to grab your food and
drink to prevent calamity. That is annoying. In my
experience, first class airline tray tables (folded out from
the armrests of the seats) are much more stable, and are
better designed to capture food trays and drink cups. Acela
should have mimicked first class airline seat trays.
While we’re on peeves, what’s the deal with those footrests?
I tried to use the footrest and found it uncomfortable, so I
started to move it back to its folded position. KERPOW! The
footrest snaps back into place with a sound like a gunshot
blast. My goodness didn’t anyone actually test those things
out prior to putting the seating into production? Great
seats, bad footrest. Oh well, back to the train ride.
If anything, the return ride along the Connecticut coast was
even more beautiful the on the ride up. The setting sun was
now low, casting long shadows, and the colors just jumped
out. Late afternoon in fall is just a great time for light
and color. Boats, small beaches, seabirds, and the fall
foliage were bathed in the warm glow of the low sun. I just
sat back and soaked it in. But all too soon the docks turned
to strip malls, and the country roads turned to
superhighways. New Haven, Metro North, and the end of New
England lay just ahead.
After New Haven the trip on 2291 was at night. That brings
me to my final peeve: the lighting. At night, the interior
of Acela is lit like a McDonalds on steroids. It is so
bright that seeing out those great windows is nearly
impossible. That is an easily correctable flaw. The simple
solution is turn down the lights. Each seat has individually
controlled reading lights, so take a queue from the airlines
and turn the dimmer controlled strip lights way, way down.
Let people who wish to read use the reading lights, and
allow the people who wish look out the windows a chance to
see something. Can you imagine the great nighttime view of
Manhattan coming over the Hell Gate Bridge if you had a
decent view out of the train?
Metro North territory, with the stop at Stamford, passed
quickly, and at New Rochelle, Acela turned left off MN
tracks and headed back over Hell Gate to Queens and the East
River tunnels to Penn Station. We arrived at New York at
7:34pm, 8 minutes early. I stepped off Acela and into Penn
Station, a move surely as close to going from heaven to hell
as there is in this world.
So what is my verdict? My review of Acela is overwhelmingly
favorable, and with some tweaking, the service could even be
better. Lets do something to make the Cafe service more
attractive and more efficient; cushion or otherwise deaden
the snap-back of the foot rests; find some way to stabilize
the seat trays so food and drink items stay put, and please,
please turn down the lights at night. But even with those
minor flaws, Acela is a quantum leap over the existing
Amfleet trains. If the weekend passenger loads I witnessed
are indicative, Acela is already a player in the NE travel
market. It is reminiscent of the introduction of the
original Penn Central Metroliners in the late 1960’s. Those
trains were so much better than the old rattletrap corridor
trains that passengers sought them out and willingly paid
extra. At least for longer trips, I feel the same about
Acela. It is a great, passenger-friendly train.
I had a one hour wait at Penn Station for NJT 7873 and the
ride back to Hamilton. Another endless string of packed
Arrow MU’s which squeaked and clunked its way down the NEC.
I straggled back into the house at 10:30 after a thirteen
and one-half hour train-a-thon. The family just shook their
heads in disbelief. I just smiled.
