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Atlantic City Express Service (ACES): A Train for Gambling?

Locations in this article:  Chicago, IL

Atlantic City sloganIt’s been four years in the making, but the new luxury express train from New York City to Atlantic City finally opened for business last weekend and hotels and casinos are hoping that it will rev up business in the recession-starved town.

The train, dubbed the Atlantic City Express Service (ACES), was a $20 million joint venture between Borgata, Harrah’s and Caesars and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

It made its inaugural trip from Penn Station on Friday with a healthy handful of passengers onboard, including New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

The double-decker cars offer two classes of service, gourmet snack kiosks that sell healthier-than-average fare, and a lounge decked out with plasma TVs and MP3 stations to appeal to the younger, wired set.

A one-way ticket for the two-and-a-half hour journey averages about $75 for first class, and $50 for a standard seat.

A spokesman for the CRDA said that the train is a weekend-only service that operates approximately three times a day from Friday afternoon to Sunday night. From Penn Station the train makes one stop in Newark to allow additional passengers to embark, but then makes no further stops the rest of the way to Atlantic City.

Blackjack DealerThough it was originally conceived to offer an alternative to travelers who were unable or unwilling to drive (or endure an uncomfortable bus ride) to Atlantic City, authorities are now hoping that the ACES train will help boost the fortunes of the gambling town, which is suffering as a result of the economic downturn.

Discretionary spending tends to be the first thing to go when times get tough, and this has indeed turned out to be true for Atlantic City. Hotel occupancy rates are at record lows, and revenues at the casinos were down seven percent last year. Business is also being hurt by new gambling halls that have opened up in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York.

Atlantic City has been undergoing a building boom for the last five years, with thousands of new hotel rooms and casinos opening up to the tune of $10 billion. However, plans for additional multi-million dollar developments have been put on hold indefinitely until the economy stabilizes.

Related links: The ACES Train, New Jersey Business Journal, National Public Radio, Chicago Tribune

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

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