Acela is broken
 

I was at South Station in Boston today and noticed on the Arrivals and Departures boards that all the Acela trains were cancelled. Here's the beginning of the latest from Associated Press:

"The Acela Express, Amtrak's much-ballyhooed hope for high-speed train travel, was shut down indefinitely Friday because of brake problems, leaving thousands of travelers scrambling for other transportation.
The beleaguered rail service pressed slower trains into use along the Northeast corridor between Washington, New York and Boston.
All Acela service will be suspended at least through next Wednesday and most is likely to be shut down for much longer because of newly discovered cracks in disc brakes, said Amtrak chief operating officer Bill Crosbie."

Thanks for the heads up, anonymous. That will no doubt cause back-ups on the regional service. My youngest son is traveling to Boston to visit his brother - he'll have to add some extra travel time into his plan. Thanks.

I expect it will cause crowding, not backups. And it will certainly be a boon for the various bus services.

I have reservations on the Washington to NY Acela...should I call and cancel?..change? or should I wait?..then I am going from NY to Boston. Hmm.

You left out the key information -- WHEN are your reservations for? All regular (not Regional) Acela trains have been cancelled through Wednesday, and the repairs could take a month. Your best source of current info is probably the Amtrak web site.

My acela reservation is for May 14. from washington to nj.

I need another June 4 to go to Boston

I sort of thought I should wait a bit..?

News media just reported that acela will not be back till the summer! However, I called Amtrak and they said they don't know where the media picks up this stuff..

Who to believe.

If I were in your shoes, I'd forget about the Acela and just take another regular Amtrak train. In fact, that's what I do anyway, even when the Acela is available; I travel on Amtrak regularly and have never used the Acela. Unless your pockets are deep and your time is very precious, the time saved is just not worth the much-higher cost, IMHO. In your case, the repeated checking and worrying is going to eat up the same percentage of your life as you'd save by taking the Acela. So: Bail now and get on with your life.

Today's Wall Street Journal has article, and I'm sure other papers do too. <b>AMTRAK says</b> Acela service won't restart until summer, as there's no spare parts for the brakes. The supplier needs to restart the manufacturing line for the parts.

Agreed that Acela is out until sometime in the summer at best. Not sure why anyone would bother with it anyway - its so little faster than the regular Amtrak - Slow or slower.

Amtrak's website has new schedules starting today with just about hourly service DC-NYC and vice versa. All trains on that route now require reservations.