Riding the so-called Acela Express

I thought I'd welcome myself back from summer vacation with a brief tirade on the shortcomings of Amtrak's top-of-the-line business class Acela Express trains. I had the "pleasure" of taking one such train from New York's Penn Station to Philadelphia's 30th Street Station (a distance of between 90 and 100 miles) which was scheduled to take 1 hour and 5 minutes, considerably shorter than my usual 2.5 hour New Jersey Transit/SEPTA commute.

About 10 minutes past Newark, NJ, the train sputtered unceremoniously to a halt. As the entire train crew paraded one by one towards the rear of the train, I could only assume that something in the aft locomotive required immediate attention. I was right, of course, but the problem seemed to be the indication of "a parking brake engaged in the rear locomotive." This must have been a sudden problem, as it did not seem to have impeded our movement over the last 20 miles (let alone the 200 or so more from Boston). They assured us it would be a "quick fix." Ten minutes later, they announced that this "quick fix" didn't work, and were on the phone with a "high-speed rail technician." Acela's trainsets are made by Alstom and Bombardier, which means they may very well have been on the phone with Montréal or Brussels, in either case potentially talking to someone who speaks much more French than English. Which would not surprise me in retrospect, since it took about 20 more minutes to even let us know they had isolated the problem, and another 10 minutes beyond that to run "diagnostics" prior to departure. Meanwhile, we are being passed on both the outer southbound track and even the inner northbound track by New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains I was supposed to be speeding ahead of. I missed my connecting R6 in Philadelphia by 2 minutes, though I was scheduled to get in 40 minutes ahead of it.

Call it luck, call it fate: I call it a disgrace. Thankfully, I did not pay full price for this ticket; at $129 at the counters the day of travel between New York and Philadelphia, the Acela ought to get passengers to their destinations yesterday. While I do not hold any of the conductors or engineers on board personally responsible, I sincerely hope they are at least minimally ashamed of the "service" their outfit is so hopelessly unqualified to provide. And while I generally can wish little ill to those in the noble profession of passenger transport, it is another sincere hope of mine--for the sake of future riders, and future generations of riders--that this little episode cost somebody their job.