Acela: the maiden voyage

After decades of curiosity I finally took my maiden voyage on Amtrak's Acela - the nearest thing to a "fast train" in the US. It was anti-climactic. The fact that we boarded at the wrong end of the train - with lots of luggage at that - didn't help (an error was not entirely our fault). The train did go fast and had a few space age touches, but overall it was not very different from the Northeast Regional train I had just taken from Washington DC to Baltimore. In fact that train may have been newer and more impressive.