Hello TrainBoarders! Is any one aware if the Acela (The actual Acela, not any of this regional stuff) crosses any roads? I was thinking it would be quite unsafe! If not, do they use over passes, underpasses??? Thanks alot! Dane
As far back as Pennsylvania Railroad days, there were absolutely no grade crossings with roads, highways, or other railroads between Wilmington, DE, and New York, NY, and only 13 between south of Wilmington to Washington, DC, which were eliminated by Amtrak. Not sure about the former New Haven "Shore Line" between New York and Boston.
Road crossings don't seem to be the biggest problem for the Acela. But the local rail traffic in and around the major cities sure is a obstacle to it's holding a speed schedules. My office is only about 40 feet from the Northeast Amtrak mains, and right at the Washington DC / Maryland border. I watch the heavy rail traffic everyday. The big user is the MARC Commuter service. They run several trains an hour in both directions. The Acela comes south into Washington in AM and departs north around 3PM. (slowly passes by my office at exactly 3:08 every day) They won't be able to run very many of them on a hourly schedule, like they do in Europe. Here is a news story, which was a grim reminder of what can happen, but pray it never does again. MARC vs. Amtrak MARC/AMTRAK WREAK ...Eddie
When I rode in January....(if my memory has not failed), north of New York we crossed one at speed around Kingston RI on a curve. I even asked the conductor about the safety issue and was told that the grade crossing are designed to block the entire road, and that there was signs warning of highspeed rail Ron Herendeen
As far as I know, there are NO road crossings between Wash DC and NYC and possibility of only a couple between NYC and Boston, Amtrak plans to have the whole WASH DC to Boston route road crossing free as soon as possible.
The are a few crossings along the route in Connecticut (and some elsewhere I think)that will never be closed due to the geography of the area. All crossings that remain will get the four quadrant gate system that completely blocks the road and has sensors to detect anything 'trapped' in between the gates. If anything is there the cab signals will be set to stop the train. None of the crossings are in the 150 MPH sections.
It is nice to say to the public you are going to run 150mph everywhere and you are the only train out there, but as anyone who is a rail knows this is not the straight story. Schedule conflicts occur at every timetable change and by working a new train into an already cluttered schedule it will take a while to know which route to run and the changes to other trains that have to be made. The Acela Express, has its headaches that come with new equipment, but what is also true with other equipment these will get fixed. It is a nice service and should do well if people would get back to the basics and Monitor and Maintain. Crossings are the least of the problems
