Amtrak's New Northeast Corridor Workhorse

Siemens ACS-64 #600 at Sacramento Manufacturing Facility May 2013
Photo Credit: Siemens/Amtrak (for all images unless otherwise specified)

Last week Friday (Feb. 7) Amtrak's newest fleet member completed its inaugural run on the the busy Northeast Corridor line on Northeast Regional #171 from Boston South Station to Union Station, Washington D.C. The brand new Siemens ACS-64 (ACS stands for "American Cities Sprinter") electric locomotive at the head end of the train is the first of 70 of the type to be delivered to Amtrak over a period of roughly two years. The locomotives, which are assembled by Siemens in Sacramento, CA to satisfy the "Buy America" requirement for federal funding, will be delivered at a rate of approximately three per month, with the final units arriving sometime next year. 

ACS-64 engineer's compartment

In addition to eventually powering all Northeast Regional and long-distance trains on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) (which serves Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and points in between), the new locomotives will also operate on the Keystone Corridor branch line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA. 

The incoming locomotive units will replace the 20 EMD AEM-7 (DC), 29 EMD AEM-7 (AC), and 15 Bombardier/Alstom HHP-8 electric locomotives currently powering trains on the NEC, most having over 3.5 million miles on them. The Swedish-designed AEM-7 locomotives (nicknamed "toasters" and originally all DC units) were delivered to Amtrak between 1978 and 1988. Between 1999 and 2002, 29 of these locomotives were upgraded by Amtrak and Alstom  to "AC" units with greater amount of horsepower allowing them to haul longer trains. 

The Mid-Atlantic's Most "Exciting" Suburbs

Downtown Silver Spring, MD at night
Photo Credit: UrbanTurf DC

Yesterday, real estate website Movoto released its ranking of the "Most Exciting Suburbs In America." Movoto created its ranking by selecting the 139 largest suburbs (using Census data)
and averaging their ranking over the following 6 criteria:

• Nightlife per capita (bars, clubs, comedy, etc.)
• Live music venues per capita
• Active life options per capita (parks, outdoor activities, etc.)
• Fast Food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)
• Percentage of restaurants that are fast food (the lower the better)

A number of suburbs in the Mid-Atlantic made the top 50 ranking, although none of them made the top 10. The region also seems to be a little underrepresented on the top 50 as well with only with only five suburbs ranked (16% of US population should equal exactly 8 on the list). 

The #1 ranked suburb in the nation, Cambridge, MA, isn't really a surprise, neither are a few of the others in the top 10 such as Berkeley, CA and Santa Monica, CA. Some of the other top 10 suburbs however, might cause a few raised eyebrows.  It should come as no surprise though that many suburbs on the list are college towns including the Mid-Atlantic's "most exciting": Towson, MD.

Continue reading to see the national top 10 "most exciting" suburbs ranking as well as the most exciting suburbs here in the Mid-Atlantic.

Bethesda's Building Boom: A detailed list of development activity in downtown Bethesda

Photo credit: BethesdaNow.com 

UPDATED 02/06/15

Since the delivery of a few projects between 2008-2009 (in the midst of the recent recession) there had been no new residential or commercial development projects completed in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. That changed just two weeks ago with the opening of the 17-story Gallery Bethesda apartment building in the Woodmont Triangle district. The Gallery is just the first in a slew of new high-density development projects to be constructed over the next few years in downtown Bethesda.

The vast majority of these projects  are residential in nature, with over 3,000 new apartment and condo units in the pipeline. However, a hotel is also in the works, and even a few office buildings, one of which is already under construction--a rarity in Montgomery County these days and Bethesda's first in over a decade. Nearly all of the projects in the pipeline are within walking distance of the Bethesda Metro station and/or the future Purple Line light rail station promoting transit usage.

THE FACTS
Coming to downtown Bethesda over the next several years:
- 30 projects
...including...
- 16 residential mid/high-rise apartment buildings
- 6 residential mid/high-rise condo buildings
- 5 office buildings 
- 2 hotels
- 1 police station
...containing...
- 4,003 residential units 
- 1,022,000 sq. ft. of office space
- 244,680 sq. ft. of retail space
- 452 hotel rooms

Here's a detailed list of all of the medium/high-density development projects going up around downtown Bethesda along with their current statuses (Remember to click on the photos to enlarge):

A Review of 2013 and a Look Ahead to 2014

There was quite a number of big news stories coming from the urban areas of the Mid-Atlantic in 2013. Below, we'll take a look at the most notable ones in each major city, as well as some more general trends apparent across the entire region. We'll also look at some of the most highly anticipated events of 2014.

Washington D.C.

Rendering of future DC United Stadium
Photo Credit: DC United

2013
DC United Stadium: DC United reached a tentative deal with the city to construct a new $300 million, 20,000 seat stadium in SW DC. The move is expected to spark continue the "revitalization" of the long-neglected neighborhoods in the area.

New Walmart Stores: The national retail behemoth opened two "urban-style" stores in NW Washington DC this month after a summer of controversy involving a new minimum wage bill that threatened to terminate the projects altogether. Three more stores are planned for the city, including one that is already under construction.

Bridges Complete: The 11th Street Bridges carrying I-695 and MLK Jr. Ave SE across the Anacostia River and the Wilson Bridge carrying the Beltway (I-95/I-495) across the Potomac River were officially completed this year. The bridges were largely complete at the beginning of the year, but minor construction work remained to be finished.

New Transportation Funding: Both Maryland and Northern Virginia received a major boost in funding for new transportation projects and system maintenance thanks to increases in gas and sales taxes respectively. 

City Center DC: The nearly $950 million, 5- block development began to deliver this month with apartments becoming available for lease. The second phase of the development, one of the largest in the nation, is expected to break ground next year and include a luxury hotel.

2013 Spotlight on Prince George's County: Maryland county secures promising future

Rendering of initial vision for MD Housing Dept headquarters
New Carrollton, MD
Photo courtesy: WTOP

Despite it's large population and numerous important institutions (NASA-Goddard, IRS, Census Bureau, Joint Base Andrews, University of Maryland, etc.), Prince George's County, which shares nearly its entire western border with DC, has been struggling to keep pace with other Beltway counties in attracting high-paying jobs and high-quality retail/residential/commercial development. This is probably mostly due to the persistent negative image the county has had because of its relatively high crime rates (despite serious crime being concentrated mainly in small pockets inside the Beltway and decreasing year over year) and schools that are perceived to be of lower quality than those in other suburban jurisdictions. 

That said, 2013 brought some very welcome news for the county in terms of its economic prospects, and the year was no doubt an unqualified success for County Executive Rushern Baker. A number of projects were announced this year that would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity, as well over 20,000 jobs to the county over the next few years:

Mid-Atlantic States Show Average Population Growth in 2013

According to the 2013 state population estimates released on Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau, the states of the Mid-Atlantic Region and Washington D.C. individually showed growth rates ranging from strong to weak, with the region's overall growth rate being decidedly below average. The estimates were taken on July 1, 2013. Here are some quick observations:

- All five Mid-Atlantic state with the exception of Delaware were in the top 20 most populous states, including New York and Pennsylvania, which were in the top 10

- The District of Columbia had a far higher growth rate than any of the states in the region, which is not surprising since urban areas have recently started to outpace many suburbs and rural areas in terms of growth.

- Pennsylvania easily had the most disappointing growth in the region and was the third slowest growing state in the entire nation between 2012 and 2013 (after Maine and West Virginia which both saw population declines)

- Florida, which added ~270,000 residents as the 8th fastest growing state in the nation is only ~100,000 residents away from displacing New York as the 3rd most populous state, which will likely happen some point next year

- Delaware was the fastest growing state in the region in 2013, ranking 16th with a nearly .1% rate of growth

- After Delaware, Maryland was the next fastest growing state in the region, ranking 23rd with a relatively average .7% growth rate

- New York and New Jersey both had below average growth, ranking 31st and 32nd respectively in terms of growth

The Wealthy States of the Mid-Atlantic

According to the recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2012 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, counties and states in the Mid-Atlantic* disproportionately dominate the top of their respective rankings of wealth and (lowest) poverty. This article discusses the wealth of the states  in the region. (A later post will focus on the counties)

The top 10 wealthiest states by median household incomes (Mid-Atlantic* states are in bold):

Rank	State	Median Household Income
1.	Maryland	$71,169
2.	New Jersey	$69,705
3.	Connecticut	$67,275
4.	Alaska	$66,503
5.	Hawaii	$66,086
6.	Massachusetts	$65,378
	District of Columbia	$65,231
7.	New Hampshire	$63,157
8.	Virginia	$61,782
9.	Minnesota	$58,828
10.	Delaware	$58,326