My Time On Acela

Acela

On my last trip to New York, which was a week ago, I rode the Acela. It is a passenger train that travels the Northeastern corridor of the United States. It is marketed as a high-speed rail service to significantly reduce travel time, and all the seats are either Business Class or First Class. Obviously, the tickets are a little higher – well, the Business Class tickets are a little higher. The First Class tickets are a lot higher.

The seats aren’t much different, as far as seat comfort, between the coach seats on the regular train and the Business Class seats on the Acela. There are no Coach seats on the Acela. The First Class seats are much different. They are bigger, more comfortable, and have far more leg room – but then those seats are approximately $200 more expensive than coach seats. Furthermore, my travel time wasn’t reduced by much. Normally, it’s a three-hour tour between Baltimore and New York City. The Acela tour was two hours and 31 minutes. I don’t think that’s enough time savings for the added cost of an Acela ticket. I walked around and looked at the Dining Car, which had a nice array of food and  beverage options. Although I had my own food that I brought on board, it’s good to know that I have good choices if I needed them. They had lots of variety, from the fat and greasy to the healthy items too.

It was a nice ride, but not worth the added cost, especially for the paltry amount of travel time.  Were I traveling farther, say between Washington, DC and Boston, the added cost would be worth it.