i miss trains: liveblogging my maiden voyage on the next-gen acela

next-gen Acela arriving at 30th st station in Philadelphia

I'm on my way to Connecticut to visit my cousin Finn at Wesleyan (my alma mater) for Family Weekend and decided to splurge on the new next gen acela because I wanted to experience a high tech French-made train running on the northeast corridor. I know how bougie and entitled this sounds, but these days I experience train travel more internationally than I do domestically. I wanted to see if this train would have some of the same feeling of taking the train in Japan and Norway, which I've been fortunate enough to do in the past couple years.

The journey was off to an auspicious start:

six seven!

I love being able to read on the train, and this route to CT brings back memories of making the trip up to college, or to Boston to visit my aunt and cousins. The next gen acela version is definitely, smoother, quieter, and more pleasant. But also probably 4 times expensive, and certainly more than you'd pay in countries that rely more on high speed rail to get between major cities. But enough snobbery, here's what it looks like, along with a few detours down memory lane:

absolutely gorgeous train bathroom

I miss Astoria! I miss the W train (rip)! This is a view from the Acela looking towards my old subway stop, Ditmars Boulevard with the Triboro Bridge on the upper right (I forgot the "new" name of the bridge).

I miss the Citibank building in Long Island City. Not really, but Lynn and I could see this building from our bedroom in Astoria. I guess it's called the optimum building now.

Car #7. The seats are super comfy.

dining car

Sorry, these are not in chronological order but I always love seeing the Trenton Makes bridge. I was going to say "I miss the Trenton train station" but I really don't.

I give the Acela Next Gen an "A" for comfort, and for even trying to bring high speed rail to the Northeast Corridor even though it's speed is throttled by the aging train tracks. The cost is as much as some cross country flights, which is absurd, but it's a luxury experience. Also, the wifi is fast enough for me to blog which is pretty cool. And finally, even though comparison is the thief of joy, I had to include a photo from my most beautiful train ride ever, from Bergen to Oslo a couple years ago.

actual view from my train ride to Oslo

Go trains! 🚆