BOSTON > WASHINGTON DC

Boston, New York, Washington DC, the great cities of America’s East Coast evoke the image of a strong America, the promised land for British emigrants stepping off the Mayflower in search of a new life in the early 17th century. All three are economic, cultural, and political metropolises looking resolutely to the future, and each in its own way represents the history of the United States. Though the railway has been a powerful element of the mythical Wild West and American expansion, over the years it has not fared well against competition from air travel and that ultimate symbol of a post-war American way of life, the automobile. Today, thanks to the Acela Express, which travels the 734 kilometres between Boston and Washington several times a day, rail transportation has earned back its stripes. Known as the Northeast Corridor, this line serves the most populated region of the US, and is the only high-speed line currently operating on American territory.

• Leaving Boston
• Northeast Corridor
• Boston-Washington DC, the journey
• A well-adapted line
• Pending projects

• Acela Express
• New York, the half-way point
• Arriving at Washington DC
• Rail vs. air

Leaving Boston

In 1620, early British settlers in search of the “New World” reached Plymouth, just south of Boston. This historic American enclave is the capital of Massachusetts as well as its economic and cultural centre. Winding through the downtown area is the 4-kilometre red line of the Freedom Trail, a footpath leading to sixteen major landmarks of the history of American independence. Boston is itself a mosaic of different neighbourhoods: the glass towers of the financial district; the shops and lively café terraces of downtown; the chic red-brick houses and gas-lit streets of Beacon Hill; the art museums and home of the Red Sox at Fenway Park; Chinatown; or, on the other side of the Charles River, Cambridge with its prestigious universities, Harvard and MIT, home to the country’s intellectual and political elite.

A few steps from downtown is South Station, terminus of the Northeast Corridor. The historic station was built in 1898, then renovated in 1989. The elegant entrance is curved, its many windows and colonnades typical of the region’s Neoclassical architecture. The station’s clock tower is a replica of Big Ben, and boasts the last mechanical clock in New England. Served by both the Acela Express and regional rail, the station also offers an annual programme of events, exhibitions and concerts.

Northeast Corridor

The exact term of “high-speed” first appeared in the US in the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965. Four years later, the express train known as the Metroliner began to shuttle between Washington D.C. and New York at a maximum speed of 200 km/hr. In the 1980s, five separate potential high-speed lines were identified, but at that time investments for rail were far inferior to those dedicated to motorways and air travel. At its origin, the Northeast Corridor, which today connects Boston to Washington, was in fact a series of lines built and operated by various companies that would eventually merge together. Amtrak, the state-owned American passenger railway company, was created in 1971. The company acquired the majority of these lines, which it now shares with privately-owned freight rail companies. In the 1990s, Amtrak took on the challenge of transforming the Boston-Washington DC route into a high-speed line, and sought bids for a faster train. A consortium created by French company GEC-Alstom and Canadian company Bombardier was awarded the commission. In 2000, the first Acela Express trains began to operate at commercial speeds up to 240 km/hr.

Boston-Washington DC, the journey

The train leaves Boston and the wild beauty of the Massachusetts coast behind. Following its route through the smallest American state of Rhode Island, the train passes through green countryside to its capital city of Providence. Located at the edge of Narragansett Bay, this pleasant city’s cobblestoned streets are lined with Victorian houses. The line continues along the coast of southern Connecticut. Travellers frequently stop off at Mystic Seaport, an old shipbuilding centre transformed into a must-see seaside destination. Today this port town has become a living museum, with its charming homes, shops, and boats, including a 19th century whaling ship. Bordering the protected waters of Long Island Sound, the train runs past New London, formerly one of the region’s most important whaling ports.

In New Haven, visitors can appreciate the Yale University campus, with its Victorian brick houses and Neo-gothic stone buildings, museums, and art galleries. The train stops next at New Rochelle - a city founded by French Protestants who bestowed its name - with its parks, small islands, forests, and fields. Continuing its path, the train pulls into Penn Station in downtown Manhattan, the most emblematic borough of New York City. And on through New Jersey, whose landscapes vary from fields and pine forests to high-tech cities. The line cuts across a corner of Pennsylvania to reach Philadelphia, a vast yet intimate-scale city offering visitors an old town replete with charming squares and cobblestone streets. This former capital of the New World brims with museums that bear witness to the city’s role in the Revolutionary War: it was notably here that the American Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. Further south, the peaceful Delaware city of Wilmington is a perfect base for visiting the Brandywine Valley, whose exceptional botanic gardens, parks, great houses and historic landmarks are reminders of America’s past. A long tunnel announces arrival at Baltimore, Maryland. This East Coast port city offers a charming seafront and the attractive Inner Harbor, a 1970’s-renovated complex that includes, among other attractions, the maritime museum as well as an aquarium housed in a pyramid of glass. Baltimore has its own Penn Station. Built in Beaux-Arts style in 1911, it is unmistakeable, thanks in part to the immense aluminium sculpture, Male/Female, that looms over the esplanade. A last stop at Baltimore-Washington Airport (BWI) before the final stop at Union Station, in Washington D.C.