Amtrak's Winner: ACELA

Tired of the hassles of air travel… the weather delays, TSA examinations that rival visiting a proctologist, and the cramped coach seating with legroom only for midgets? Well, try the train… if you can get a seat.

In the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak’s flagship train, Acela, is a delight for daytrips to Boston or DC. But I’m not alone in being a big Acela fan, as I found out recently. Arriving at NY’s Penn Station at 3 pm one weekday afternoon. I figured I’d have no problem getting a seat on the 4 pm Acela to Baltimore. Wrong! It was sold out and so was the 5 pm train. First class was available for an additional $82, but I opted for a slightly slower but much cheaper “conventional” Acela Regional train equipped with the older Amfleet coaches. (Mind you, I did treat myself to “Business Class” for an extra $ 30, offering more legroom and all the free Diet Pepsi I could drink.)

Amtrak tells me that ridership is up 7% this year on Acela and climbing steadily since the latest airline terrorist scare in mid-August. Trains are selling out hours, if not days, in advance… not just rush hour departures, but mid-day as well. And why not? Riding Acela (which I’m doing as I write this column) is a delight. It’s fast, comfortable, on-time (90% of the time, come rain or snow) and its quiet, especially in the popular Quiet Car®. But it’s not cheap, nor should it be.

Amtrak is following the airlines’ lead in adopting yield management, offering big discounts for reservations in advance (for example, Stamford to Boston on Acela purchased two weeks in advance, just $ 78). But if you need a ticket for tomorrow’s early Acela to Washington, it’s $ 193. It’s all a matter of supply and demand, and demand is way, way up.

The problem is, the supply of seats is static. Amtrak has only 20 Acela train sets and, hobbled by a GOP-appointed Board of Directors with a death-wish for the railroad it runs, there seems little hope of ordering more trains. Acela is becoming a victim of its own success.

Currently, Acela makes 14 runs a day between NYC and DC, but just 8 trips each weekday between NY and Boston. And not all of those trains make a stop in Stamford. Squeezed into the CDOT-owned and Metro-North operated tracks at rush hour, Acela can’t earn a stop in “the city that works”.

A big plus is Amtrak’s Guest Rewards® program styled after the airlines frequent flyer programs. You earn points based on distance traveled and the cost of your ticket. At the program’s “silver” and “gold” levels, “Select” and “Select Plus”, you get free first-class upgrades and free visits to the ClubAcela lounges found in many cities, a great place to wait for your train while enjoying free snacks and wireless internet connections. Amtrak also has its own affinity MasterCard which can really rack up the points.

In a future column I’ll write about the joys (and sorrows) of long-distance travel on Amtrak, but right now I’m off to the Acela Café Car for a soda before an early arrival in Washington. Ah, Acela!

JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident, transit activist and commuter for 15 years. You can reach him at Cameron06820@gmail.com or www.trainweb.org/ct