Amtrak plans 37-minute train from New York to Philadelphia by 2040

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Amtrak plans 37-minute train from New York to Philadelphia by 2040

By Dave Warner
PHILADELPHIA | Mon Jul 9, 2012 8:22pm EDT

(Reuters) - Amtrak announced a $151 billion improvement plan on Monday that includes 37-minute trips from New York to Philadelphia at speeds approaching 220 miles per hour (354 km per hour).

However, the U.S. passenger railroad will need substantial financial support from both state and federal governments to make its ambitious plan to transform rail travel in the Northeast a reality.

The railroad predicted that super-fast train trips along the East Coast could be a reality by 2040. Travel times from New York to either Washington or Boston - both about 200 miles in distance - would also be slashed, to 94 minutes, the report said.

Current travel times from New York to Philadelphia on Amtrak's sleek Acela trains are 1 hour, 15 minutes. Travel between New York and Washington currently takes 2 hours, 45 minutes and New York to Boston takes 3 hours, 41 minutes, according to Amtrak's website.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/us-usa-newyork-amtrak-idUSBRE8681D920120710

[KurtNYC]

1. 28 years from NOW?

why the rush?

Perhaps it is best to let technology age a bit before deploying it. You want to make sure these things aren't just a fad and that all of the kinks are worked out.

[brooklynite]

2. This is sad...

...becasue it will never happen. Setting aside the general reluctance of Congress to adequately fund Amtrak's operation, and the phenomenal capital expenditure, this proposal requires a new ROW along the entire route (too many commuter and regular trains on the NEC to achieve these speeds); who in NJ is willing to give up their land for a new train line?

The really sad thing is that they're saying "in 30 years IF we get the money and IF everything goes on schedule, we'll have trains achieving the speeds that European HSR acheieved decades ago.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Kennedy committed us to getting to the moon in less than ten years

We now commit ourselves to shaving forty minutes off a train trip between New York and Philly in less than 30 years.

Awesome development!

[KansDem]

4. Great news!!!

Maybe it can transport my coffin (if, at the time, I need to go from New York to Philadelphia).

[WI_DEM]

5. terrific! I'll be dead by then.

[yellowcanine]

6. 2040? If aviation moved this slowly we would still be flying in propeller planes.

[marmar]

7. It took China 3 years to build a high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai.....

Last edited Tue Jul 10, 2012, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

...... which are 680 or so miles apart. And it took Britain and France six years to build a supertunnel with a high-speed rail line THROUGH THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

2040? This has become a pathetic, sad, can't-do (or won't-do) country.

[FarCenter]

8. The Amtrak Vision for the Northeast Corridor - 2012 Update Report

You can download the report (10 MB) from
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241245669222

Part of the reason this will take a while is that the section between NY and Providence, RI will be on a new realigned roadbed though New Rochelle, Danbury, Waterbury, and Hartford. It will not follow the existing Bridgeport, New Haven, Kingston alignment which has some problems and is owned by multiple entities.

Hard to tell, but it may also have a new route out of New York and not through Sunnyside and the slow loop through Queens.