Amtrak’s brand new, state-of-the-art high-speed trains officially launched, but there’s a catch—they don’t actually run any faster than the old ones yet. Two of the five next-generation Acela trains deployed on the Washington-Boston corridor will actually run slower than the older models for the foreseeable future. According to TheWall Street Journal, the new trains will take at least seven hours and five minutes to complete the trip, which is around 10 minutes slower than the current journey time. Amtrak has blamed the corridor’s aging tracks, power systems, and signals for preventing the new models from safely reaching their top speed of 160 mph, highlighting a disparity between American railways and the modern, high-speed tracks found in Europe and Asia. The company has since stated that schedules will be adjusted based on real-world performance and that future infrastructure upgrades are planned to help the new trains reach their full potential. Amtrak plans to add 28 new trains to its fleet over the next two years as part of a $2.45 billion investment project.
