Acela
Sign in to saveAlso known as Acela Express
The Acela ( ; originally the Acela Express until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship passenger train service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C., and Boston via 13 intermediate stops, including Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia. Acela trains are the fastest in the Americas, reaching , qualifying as high-speed rail, but only for approximately of the route.
Key facts
- Rail service.name
- Acela
- Rail service.logo
- Acela logo.svg
- Rail service.logo_width
- 170px
- Rail service.image
- Acela Express Rahway.jpg
- Rail service.image_width
- 300px
- Rail service.caption
- Acela at Rahway, New Jersey, in May 2021
- Rail service.type
- Inter-city, high speed tilting train
- Rail service.locale
- Northeast megalopolis
- Rail service.predecessor
- Metroliner
- Rail service.operator
- Amtrak
- Rail service.start
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Rail service.stops
- 12
- Rail service.end
- Washington, D.C.
- Rail service.journeytime
- 6 hours
- Rail service.frequency
- 20 per day
- Rail service.class
- First ClassBusiness Class
- Rail service.access
- Fully accessible
- Rail service.seating
- 4 across in business class 3 across in first class
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Official website
- www.amtrak.com/routes/acela-express-train.html
- Image
- Acela Express 2034 - BWI Amtrak (cropped).jpg
- Length
- 735
Show 5 more facts
- date of official opening
- 2000-12-11
- Commons category
- Acela Express
- inception
- 2000-12-11
- patronage
- 3153621
- timetable/schedule URL
- content.amtrak.com/content/timetable/Acela.pdf
via Wikidata · CC0
~31 min read
Article
26 sectionsContents
- History
- Background
- Building and development
- Cost
- Impact of the ''Acela''
- Legacy and influence
- Branding
- Engineering
- First-generation trainsets
- Second-generation trainsets
- Operating speeds
- High speed infrastructure
- Platform track speeds
- Outages
- Service
- Composition
- Operations and staffing
- Wi-Fi service
- Staffing
- Notable incidents
- Station stops
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Further reading
- External links
The Acela ( ; originally the Acela Express until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship passenger train service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C., and Boston via 13 intermediate stops, including Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia. Acela trains are the fastest in the Americas, reaching , qualifying as high-speed rail, but only for approximately of the route.
In fiscal year 2025, Acela carried more than 3.1 million passengers, second only to the slower and less expensive Northeast Regional, which had over 12 million passengers. Ridership was down from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic high of 3,557,455 passengers in 2019. Its 2025 revenue of $570 million was around 20.6% of Amtrak's total.