
Tesla Model 3 vs. Amtrak's Acela Express: The Electric Future Acid Test - HBlix
http://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/22940/tesla-model-3-vs-amtrak-acela-express-nyc-to-boston-which-is-faster-electric-car-or-high-speed-rail
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toweringgoat
Meanwhile in the developed world: TGV takes 2 hours from Lyon to Paris, google
maps claims a car takes 4 hours.

The French do like their train strikes though. Maybe let's try Japan. Tokyo to
Kyoto: 2.5 hours train, 5 hours by car.

Additional advantage: I can walk around, and get a meal (not sure about the
Shinkansen, but the TGV does have a restaurant). And read, or work, or
daydream.

~~~
johnchristopher
> Meanwhile in the developed world: TGV takes 2 hours from Lyon to Paris,
> google maps claims a car takes 4 hours.

Yeah. But try going anywhere around Lyon[0] after the nice TGV trip from
Paris[0] and welcome to connection hell.

[0] Or any other TGV connected cities.

~~~
kken
What is the problem? Lyon has a fully developed system of trams and subways.
It's directly connected to the TGV train station.

[http://www.tcl.fr/var/tcl/storage/original/application/b8cb6...](http://www.tcl.fr/var/tcl/storage/original/application/b8cb650a73f20cb493200ae0f144d347)

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melling
It’s not a bullet train. NYC to Boston is about 220 miles. If it takes 4
hours...

Try driving from New York to Boston at a normal hour with regular traffic. We
flew to Providence over Labor Dat weekend to avoid the crazy traffic.

Beijing to Shanghai is 800 miles and takes 4.5 hours. That’s a bullet train.

~~~
hadrien01
Indeed. Real high-speed trains (up to 220mph) will arrive for the first time
in the US in 2021.

~~~
Shelnutt2
I assume you are referring to the Avelia Libery[1] the replacement for the
acela express. Unfortunately until track and signal upgrades happen (no date
on when they will happen) the train is limited to 160mph. It's better than
acela but not much.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avelia_Liberty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avelia_Liberty)

~~~
tialaramex
Does this have in-cab signalling? Britain built 140 mph capable trains, but
experience showed the existing 125 mph was the maximum at which a human
looking out of a window at coloured light signals is truly effective and so
they're operated at only 125 mph.

(Trains on High Speed 1 from London to the Channel have signals displayed
inside the cab like a TGV so it's safe to go faster)

~~~
gsnedders
The UK is actually unusual insofar as we allow trains as fast as 125mph
(201km/h) without in-cab signalling; most other places in Europe require in-
cab signalling at lower speeds (some as low as half of that!).

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jonstewart
This is a truly dumb article and I'm sorry I wasted time reading it.

Anyone who's familiar with the NYC->BOS Acela route will tell you that both
the tracks and artificial speed limitations when going through Westchester
suck. When you ride on the train, you can be productive the whole time.

~~~
efuquen
> Anyone who's familiar with the NYC->BOS Acela route

And that is literally like almost nobody. I bet less then 1% of anyone living
in NYC or Boston metropolitan area have ever ridden on Amtrak, let alone the
Acela.

~~~
dionidium
Amtrak is extremely popular in the Northeast Corridor. The Acela has 3,442,188
yearly riders. 10 million Amtrak passengers pass through Penn Station every
year. The Northeast Corridor line has 12 million yearly riders.

\- [https://media.amtrak.com/2017/11/amtrak-sets-ridership-
reven...](https://media.amtrak.com/2017/11/amtrak-sets-ridership-revenue-and-
earnings-records/)

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_Amtrak_station...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_Amtrak_stations)

\- [https://www.railpassengers.org/all-aboard/tools-
info/ridersh...](https://www.railpassengers.org/all-aboard/tools-
info/ridership-statistics/)

~~~
CaptainZapp
Just to put that in perspective :

Shinjuku station in Tokyo (the world's busiest train station by passenger
count) serves 3.64 million passengers _per day_.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku_Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku_Station)

~~~
dionidium
Your numbers for that station include inter-city rail, commuter rail, and
subway lines. My numbers were only for Amtrak (inter-city rail). If everything
is included, then Penn Station serves about 600k passengers per day.

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alfanick
-ENOACCESS [0], failure at implementing GDPR...

[0]: [https://geoscripts.meredith.services/public/html/no-
access.h...](https://geoscripts.meredith.services/public/html/no-access.html)

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rocky1138
So weird to see mph used. It makes it difficult to compare to the rest of the
world.

How does the Tesla compare against a real high speed train like the HSR in
Taiwan? That's a real test.

~~~
adrianN
Kyoto - Tokyo: By car 5 hours plus breaks. By Shinkansen 3:20. A Tesla won't
help you.

Berlin - Munich: By car 5.5 hours plus breaks. With the ICE 4.5 hours.

~~~
jacquesm
I've done Berlin-Munich by car many times, maybe I managed that under 5 hours
_once_ , in the dead of night. But the usual is a couple (5 or so)
construction zones which totally kill your average. 6.5 hours is fairly
typical if you need to gas up once and take appropriate rests.

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ttul
It’s really a shame that I could not finish reading the article because some
spammy ad redirected me to a shitty lottery page.

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muglug
If everybody hopped in their Teslas instead of taking trains there’d be far
more traffic on the roads, and slower commutes. But good to know that NY-
Boston can be done on a single charge.

~~~
hexane360
Yep. Both of these systems change as usage changes. More cars makes traffic
worse. More public transit increases crowding, but it also allows more times
and services to become profitable.

This experiment doesn't tell us anything except that we're not currently in
equilibrium. It doesn't tell us what any equilibrium is, or how many there
are, or how many are stable.

