Acela

The Acela is New England's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by NENR, the state-owned national rail operator. The project was originally started in the early 1990s at the urging of then President Michael Dukakis, a staunch rail transport advocate. Prime Minister Mario Cuomo made construction of national high speed rail network a priority of his government staring in 1993. Construction of new infrastructure to support the project was started in 1994, with the passage of the National Rail Infrastructure Act by the House of Representatives. The project used much of the existing Northeast Corridor infrastructure with improvements made to service higher speed operation. A initial sixteen train sets were ordered from the Canadian company Bombardier, based upon their Train à Grande Vitesse design in use with Via Rail in Canada. Following the inaugural service between Portland and New York City via Boston in 2000 on the Northeast Corridor, the network, centered on New York, has expanded to connect major cities across New England (including Hartford, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Manchester, and Burlington among others) and in neighboring countries on a combination of high-speed and conventional lines. The Acela network in New England carries about 97 million passengers a year.