What is the name of the first high-speed train service in the United States?

The first high-speed train service in the United States was Acela Express.

Amtrak introduced Acela Express on 11 December 2000 on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C., serving major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was designed to provide faster, premium intercity travel on one of the country’s busiest rail routes.

The trainsets used tilting technology, allowing them to lean into curves and maintain higher speeds on the older, winding Northeast Corridor. They were manufactured by a partnership between Alstom and Bombardier and replaced the ageing Metroliner fleet. Acela’s maximum speed was much higher than its average journey speed because most of the route was not a dedicated high-speed railway.

A frequent mix-up is the Metroliner, which began high-speed-style service in the United States in 1969. However, the quiz’s conventional answer refers to the first branded high-speed service: Acela Express. Amtrak renamed it simply Acela in 2019.