While taking our first trip on Amtrak from Charlotte to New York City recently, I had the handheld GPS on and recording our location along the way. I was curious about two things: first, where are the tracks amtrak uses, and secondly, how fast do the trains go. After returning home, I was able to download the tracks and using gpsvisualizer.com put together a series of google maps color coded by speed. Click on ‘Continue Reading’ to view the maps.
**Due to the length of the trip, and limitations within this method of displaying gps data, the trip is broken up into 10 segments beginning at Charlotte and ending at Penn Station in NYC. Toggle between the overall view and individual segments using the buttons below. Breaks in the line exist in Washington DC, Baltimore and New York City – those are portions where tracks are underground and GPS doesn’t work.**
The portion of the trip from Charlotte to Washington, DC was on the Amtrak Carolinian. It uses a diesel engine and topped out in speed at 80 mph based upon track conditions. After Washington DC, the Amtrak Northeast Regional took us the rest of the way to NYC. That portion of the track was electrified and completely grade separated, so the train utilized an electric engine and topped out in speed at 130 mph based upon track traffic.