Amtrak Ads Are Going Full Luxury Car

Luxury car ads are an automaker’s love letter to its current and future customers. Like the one featuring Matthew McConaughey for Lincoln, or the millions of Jon Hamm-voiceover Mercedes-Benz ads I’m fed as a Mercedes owner, they focus on premium driving experiences and luxurious touchpoints all in a calming, but commanding, middle aged male voice. Amtrak wants a little of that allure for its latest and greatest high-speed train service, the NextGen Acela. 

The 30-second video “The Build,” dropped on the American passenger’s service YouTube channel last week is reminiscent of most luxury and tech ads you’d come across today, down to the voiceover that sounded suspiciously like the guy who does the voiceover for many Honda car ads (at least the levels as well as the cadence are very similar). In it, the visuals build the componentry of Amtrak’s new NextGen Acela trains, from gearing to the stitching of the seats, putting componentry together until the main character gracefully takes a seat on the actual train. It certainly felt like a car ad, but for the public passenger experience. If I know our readers, you are likely an enthusiast of both. 

But in reality train travel is a mixed bag when it comes to what is offered in the U.S., which is why, although this ad is fun to watch, it comes with some mixed feelings. Most train travel is tiresome, with ok seating, and semi-questionable bathrooms. For some travelers it’s a novelty trip. But people also need trains to travel for everything from everyday commutes to once in a while trips. Really, the analogy can be also be applied to how cars are divided into luxury and “other.”

Enter Amtrak’s NextGen Acela trains, introduced at the end of August last year, offering the opposite of tired and “ok” fixtures. The high speed train‘s spacious trainsets can accommodate 386 passengers with nicer amenities like personal outlets, complimentary Wi-Fi, adjustable reading lights, and oh yes, nicer restrooms, all while reaching smooth speeds of up to 160 mph.

The NextGens high speed trains are only available to the Northeast corridor of Amtrak’s service like to and from New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C. — where professional people regularly commute by train and can afford a more lux experience. Seating choices are limited to Business, priced closer to higher-end coach pricing on other trains, and First Class, which tend to be substantially more (approximately 2-4 times more than Business seating).

It seems that for now, the more premium price reflects what you’d get with premium pricing in a luxury car. The only downfall is it hasn’t consistently delivered on the higher speeds. In a Forbes review published in November, the writer explained he saved only five minutes of travel time on his typical travel route compared to when taking other trains.

In all fairness the last part isn’t necessarily Amtrak’s fault. It’s not been provided the luxury of passenger-only rails like many of the real high-speed trains in other parts of the world, meaning this train stops for cargo, train changes, etc. It would be wonderful if that could change, but at the rate that high speed projects are being adopted and completed, that ideal often feels more like a pipe dream.

Despite that minor setback, in just the first month of five NextGen cars running, Amtrak moved 60,000 customers, which doesn’t seem bad at all, especially with its limited offerings for travel days. Plans are to launch 23 more trainsets through 2027.