A couple of years ago we travelled on that line from Philadelphia to
Boston, on the ordinary - non-Acela - train. It was a lot cheaper,
although slower, than the Acela would have been, but even still the
train was extraordinarily comfortable by UK standards, and probably far
cheaper in terms of pence per mile!

My Journey on the same train as you was from New York to Boston, it was
awful and one of the worst journeys in my life. I went to Penn station the
night before and queued for 25mins to buy a ticket from a foreign person who
I couldn't understand. I got there the next day and waited for my train.
Because the Acela Express wasn't running I had to queue again to get a
refund on my ticket and queue again to buy one for the normal train. I then
was waiting for the train to come up on the departure board and thought I'd
sit down, but they dont have a customer lounge (or even a bench) for
Non-Acela Express customers, I went over to the lounge though and found it
locked shut, I asked station staff why it was and it was because: "There is
No Acela Express." Which I found very bad. The train finally turned up and
you had to form a queue by a gate (what next, go though metal detectors?) to
go down an escalator. I spent ages trying to find my coach (it was a fully
reserved train) and someone on board told me that you can sit anywhere.
(what does Fully reserved actually mean. It certantly doesn't match what It
sounds like.) The train was packed and I didnt get to sit near who I was
travelling with and then we finally arrived at Boston. That was probably one
of the worst train Journeys that I'd ever made.
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