High-speed waste: Amtrak spending.

• Author: Boehm, Eric
• Position: Citings - Brief article

Amtrak has announced it will spend $2.4 billion to upgrade its fleet of Acela trains by 2019. The new locomotives, which will run between Washington, D.C., and Boston, will have a top speed of 160 mph. That's about 25 mph faster than the Acela can go now--but don't expect them to save you much time travelling up and down the East Coast.

The current Acela trains are technically able to hit 135 mph, but they almost never reach that number. The average speed for the typical Washington-to-New YorkAcela run is less than 80 mph, for reasons that have nothing to do with the machines themselves. Blame tracks congested by slower-moving commuter trains and rail infrastructure that can't handle high-speed vehicles. That won't change with the...