Acela

Also 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

~31 min read

Article

26 sections

Contents

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

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.