Wifi being trialed on Acela as well April 12, 2009
Posted by Logan Nash in Amtrak.Tags: acela, acela wifi, wifi
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In a bit of an update to our story last week, Amtrak seems to be trying out wifi Internet access on certain Acela trains as well, according to ABC News. They didn’t have many details aside from that the service seemed to be reasonably fast and stable and that Amtrak, of course, stressed that any wifi encountered on Acela is just in a trial run phase.
Here’s a link to the video.
More wifi on Amtrak seems like a no-brainer to me.
patlynch
Logan Nash
hope it will help boost the ridership a lot. That is… if wifi they have don’t suck.
I took a trip across CO a few months back, and wifi would’ve been nice to have. Probably much more important for those business travellers in the NEC, though.
Oh I think this could be the “killer” app an Amtrak route such as the Hiawatha between Milwaukee and Chicago. It would let people get work done on the way to and from work if need be, and simply add something to do while on board. I do hope this gets rolled out nationwide.
But how long until they start charging? I know Amtrak’s generally not like other businesses, and that “free wifi” is in and of itself an excellent selling point, but the airlines certainly aren’t going that direction and I’ve yet to see an American company skip a chance to turn the screws on my wallet.
toast2042: it may be somehting that’s business-class only, much like the DeutschBahn; I don’t think that’s really an issue
There is trial WiFi on ONE of the Acela train sets, with no way to predict whether you’ll be on the one that has it. I verified by checking the external IP address that it’s using Verizon for its connectivity. Today, the connection was glitchy, at least between Boston and New York. Best measured speed was about 300Kb down. One of the access points seemed generally available (Acela_Test_Channel_2), whereas the other one (…Channel_3) would disappear about half the time. Today’s conductor gets kudos for asking people whether it was working or not and taking an interest in making sure that it was… occasionally re-powering the system which would get AP 3 working again for awhile.
The WiFi system is available in TS19. Look for power cars 2021 and 2024. If you see them, then you are lucky to have WiFi. The system will be extended for the whole ACELA fleet; just be patient and provide accurate reviews of the system in order to help improving it.