Community Corner

Amtrak Puts Brakes on High-Speed Train Plan

The new fleet won't be as fast as the transit company had hoped or advertised.

It seems a 37-minute train ride to New York City isn’t in the cards for us, after all. 

Amtrak, which previously said it would seek to replace its current Acela train fleet with models that can reach 220 mph, recently released specifications for its new trains on the Northeast Corridor — and they’ll only hit 160 mph, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Amtrak in January had announced a vision for the Northeast Corridor that involved high-speed trains that would reach 220 mph. That would have meant a 37-minute trip between Philadelphia and New York.

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Amtrak’s current top speed between Philadelphia and New York is 135 mph, with an average closer to 64 mph, The Inquirer said.

Amtrak still has plans for 220-mph trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the company said, but the East Coast is out of luck for now.

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