Regarding Avelia Liberty (Acela 2, NextGen Acela) speeds

Posted by IsStatenIsland on 2 August 2025 in English. Last updated on 6 November 2025.

Update from November 6th: All the bulletins effectuating the Type A/B changes from 150 mph to 160 mph are in my possession. I upload employee timetables and bulletins here. I also now request bulletins every month from Amtrak.

I learned a bit about supplemental bulletin orders and summary bulletin orders and the schedule on which they’re issued. Summary bulletin orders are issued every first Monday of the month (and split by line such as NYW and BNY) and supplemental bulletin orders are issued as needed. The monthly summary bulletin orders always contain the aggregation of changes since the previous employee timetable so they can be further used to find the original supplemental bulletin orders that effectuated specific changes. Full employee timetable publications may take place of the monthly summary bulletins.

Modified on July 14th, 2025 by Supplemental Bulletin Order NYW1-18-c:

New Jersey: Midway & CP Clark

Modified on July 14th, 2025 by Supplemental Bulletin Order BNY1-18-a:

Rhode Island #1: MP 154.3 & MP 171.7, except Cv MP 159.7 & MP 160.5 and Cv MP 170.5 & MP 170.9
Massachusetts: MP 194.5 & MP 205

Modified on September 1st, 2025 by Summary Bulletin Order BNY1-20SUM:

Rhode Island #2: MP 174.5 & MP 180.5, except Cv MP 180.1 & MP 180.2 and Cv MP 180.2 & MP 180.5 (Type B speed remains unchanged at 125 mph)

There is no Type A train that can exceed 150 mph because the NextGen Acela is still Type B. The maximum speed possible in the Rhode Island #2 section remains 150 mph because the Type B speed is still 125 mph.

Update from August 29th: I’ve upgraded the speeds back to 160. What a crazy exercise of futility. One day later I also obtained summary bulletin order describing most of the changes. There’s still a little more work to do.

Update from August 11th: There are ramblings about the maximum speeds already being changed since July, before I even made this post. I may have shot myself in the foot here although the original editor of the edits I “reverted” presumably didn’t know about the actual rule changes either.

I’ve tried requesting the newest ETT on August 8th and I received the same ETT I already had. The speed changes may have been issued by general order without a general ETT update. As I still have no hard evidence, I can’t yet modify the speed limits yet. It may be necessary to wait for revenue service if nobody can point me to the document I need to request.

On the bright side while going through all of this, I had a chance to closely review speed limits in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts areas. The editors (presumably stevea at least at first) had a solid understanding of the speed change boundaries.

While researching the editor(s), I encountered a changeset that has a URL to yet another ETT I don’t have. Amazing.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121019023013/www.acm.jhu.edu//~sthurmovik/movies/NEC_GO_301_1-18-10.pdf

End updates

https://archive.org/details/AMTK-NEC-employee-timetable-20250505-si

This is the most up to date Northeast Corridor Employee Timetable (ETT) I’ve requested, published May 5, 2025. It contains Amtrak’s maximum authorized speeds on the Northeast Corridor. The Acela 2’s planned speeds (mostly focusing on changing 150 to 160 mph) have not yet been integrated into the rules by Amtrak, despite the observed or assumed compatibility with 160 mph service by track class, catenary structure or demonstration in recent test runs. The current runs remain just that: test runs.

There are currently 4 sections of 150 mph (for Type A trains and on the “main” or “inner” two tracks) on the Northeast Corridor:

New Jersey: Midway & CP Clark
Rhode Island #1: MP 154.3 & MP 171.7, except Cv MP 159.7 & MP 160.5 and Cv MP 170.5 & MP 170.9
Rhode Island #2: MP 174.5 & MP 180.5, except Cv MP 180.1 & MP 180.2 and Cv MP 180.2 & MP 180.5
Massachusetts: MP 194.5 & MP 205

New Jersey, County & Midway is really close at 145 mph (except 3 curves) and I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that.

One of two things needs to happen before OSM can be updated with the new speeds:

A new ETT is issued with blanket authorization of new speeds (perhaps without even authorizing any actual train type)
A revenue run is observed at the new speeds

I’ve set up this tag regime to give editors a signal that the maximum speed data is extremely recent and not just based on casual observation: