I was in Providence briefly a couple weeks ago. Providence is a really nice, walkable, urban city. But it's pretty small, and I've posted Providence threads before, in
2017 and
2022. Not wanting to duplicate too much, I'll only post a few photos here.
But I took Acela home to DC, and those pictures should be fresh. So this thread's coming in two chapters:
Chapter 1: Providence
The great Westminster Street! Narrow, dense, intricate, fun, heavy, beautiful. The total opposite of a stroad, and a clear picture of what makes urbanism good. I'd say it's the best street in Rhode Island, and indeed it would be the best in many a state, but Thayer Street puts up strong competition.
Thayer Street, on College Hill near Brown. College ghetto neighborhoods are everything American neighborhood urbanism can & should be. Living, casual, affordable, diverse, homey, walkable, easy, thriving. They're not downtowns, not tourist targets, just quality locals hubs. Providence's College Hill--here anchored by Thayer Street--is a textbook case.
This picture's from a previous thread. If I'm going to talk about Thayer Street, I feel like I need an overview type photo, but I hadn't taken one on this trip. So here you go.
Ladd Observatory:
Downtown:
Chapter 2: Acela from PVD to DC
Sometime in the late 20th Century, Providence moved its historic downtown tracks into a tunnel under the city. This necessitated a new train station, since the
historic one wouldn't connect to the tracks anymore. That's too bad, but the tunnel is fast, and the new station is OK.
There's an open-air section just next to the new station, so you can walk around and get a peek down into the platforms and see the trains. The station serves Acela, Boston MBTA regional rail, and Amtrak's Northeast Regional (pictured here). Trains are coming and going every 15 minutes or so, give or take, at least at busy times.
The platforms... well, let's just say underground concrete bunkers are a style for the Northeast Corridor, seen in many cities along the east coast. That's an MBTA train with the purple.
My steed arrives.
Acela trains are nicer than normal Amtrak trains. They're built to look nice, not as much to take the decades of beating you can see in all other Amtrak trains. I probably should've taken more interior pictures.
Let's talk a minute about whether Acela qualifies as "high speed rail." Acela gets a lot of negative comments for being objectively worse than the kind of HSR people may have ridden in Europe or Asia. And that's true! Its max speed is mediocre by the standards of HSR, and it has a lot of slow sections, particularly in Connecticut where NIMBYS have repeatedly torpedoed track improvements.
But. But Acela is still the fastest train in the western hemisphere. And it does cook for stretches of its route. If you're ever on it, download a speedometer app and watch for yourself.
Connecticut. Wanna see it?
This is New London, Connecticut, near the Rhode Island border.
OK so, "New London" is a joke of a name, and New Londoners are committed to the bit. New London is on a river, which they've officially named the Thames. And what do they name I-95's bridge over the Thames? None other than, of course, New London Bridge.
Speaking of bridges, here's Bridgeport:
This is apparently a former miner league baseball stadium that's been repurosed as a concert venue.
You come into New York via this, the Hell Gate Bridge. Pass over a mean stretch of water where 19th Century sailing ships tried (and often failed) the harrowing narrows between Bronx and Queens. You cross this and then loop out a wide curve through Queens, with Manhattan's skyline visible off to the right for miles. Hell Gate is the opening act of a great show.
You pass next to Long Island City and its Sunnyside railyard, home to NJ Transit. Subway trains pass by aboveground on the other side of the railyard. Can you spot them?
Maybe with the help of zoom.
Shortly after that it's underground again for Manhattan and Penn Station. Sorry, no pics. There's not much to see anyway.
But here's Newark, NJ's above ground Penn Station, lol
Newark Penn Station is actually really nice, and someday soon I'll post a thread of never-shared Northern NJ stuff, but today we're just passing through.
Through New Jersey to Trenton. A speeding Acela is not the best way to get a photo of Trenton's iconic TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES bridge, but here's the best I could do.
And then into Philadelphia!
Just before reaching Philly 30th Street Station you pass over Girard Street and its middle-lane streetcar, sadly being bustituted on the day of my train.
Then you come into 30th Street to a closeup view of the next generation of Acela trains. These are brand new, not yet in passenger service, and will go slightly faster than the existing trains. But only slightly. The real hold up with 200mph+ trains on the NE corridor isn't the trains, it's the tracks.
Say hello to Wilmington, Delaware!
Cross the Susquehanna River in Maryland:
And into Baltimore! The Baltimore views are underwhelming. There's another tunnel, and the angles don't work out to see the skyline very well. At least not where I was prepared to get a photo. But this Good Boy is prominent poking above the trees for a minute or two.
After that, the Maryland suburbs and DC.
OK, OK, I didn't take this photo from inside the train. You got me.
Home sweet neo-classical home.
Thanks for looking!
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