Why has the Acela only 6 cars?

[Supermicha]

Hi.

I´m a train fan from germany, and want to know, why the Acela has only 6 cars? Its two locos have more horsepower than the german ICE 1, which rides with 14 cars up to 150 miles per hour! With 6 cars, the Acela must be sold out months before a trip. Or not? Is it possible to couple two sets together? If yes, are there some double rides during the daliy main times? Greetings from Germany.

[Steve4031]

Hi,
I am not really sure why they have only six cars on an Acela train set. However, I do not think that Amtrak yet has enough trainsets to put two of them together for one trip. The plan is to run trains every couple of hours throughout the day.

I have traveled to Germany on two occassions, and you guys really know how to run a railroad. The huge number of operations and variety of operations is very interesting to me. If you are planning a trip to the U.S., or have questions you can email me at [e-mail]

have a good day

Steve

[Anonymous]

I agree that there are not yet enough train sets. The HST 125 here in the UK is a seven-car formation (I think). Virgin Trains have come in for a lot of stick for wirthdrawning seven-car trains and replacing them with (more frequent) four-car units.

The other issue is possibly that the corridor improvements have not been completed (how often does the Acela get up to 150 mph?).

Again, a comparison with the UK: Virgin Trains new Pendolinos (tilting) were built for 140 mph so as to have high(ish) speed and high-frequency schedules to Birmingham and Manchester.

However, with Railtrack in administration and the cost escalation on the West Coast Route Modernisation (now around £7-10 billion) the proposed upgrades to allow 140 mph have not yet been carried out. Hence Virgin is to buy some extra sets to allow slower trains, but longer sets and more of them.

Jason.