Amtrak Wi-Fi (WiFi) Availability

Jeff Smith wrote:From a while ago; would espresso make the lack of Wi-Fi better? The Italians think both will make your trip better...

Business Insider

I love the line "whiny east coast media elites."

Two Ideas From Italian Trains That Would Make Riding Amtrak Infinitely Better

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/two-idea ... z2R8WsrY4J

The first one: Blazing fast, free Wifi.

Actually, it's not free. It costs literally one euro cent. Apparently that's just so they can get your personal data.

If you follow any East Coast media elites on Twitter, you've certainly seen them whine about the crappy WiFi on Amtrak trains.

Anyway, this WiFi just worked, except when the train was going through a tunnel through a mountain, but that's an understandable flaw.

The other superior thing about Italian trains: Espresso carts.

3 or 4 times on the 3 hour trip, an espresso cart came through the aisle, making fresh-poured espresso in little plastic, clinical cups.

Not a coffee drinker, but the Wi-Fi continues to underwhelm me. There's definitely a correlation between performance and the crowdedness of the train.

Will a byproduct of Positive Train Control be better WiFi and cell phone coverage along the routes, including in tunnels?

JimBoylan wrote:Will a byproduct of Positive Train Control be better WiFi and cell phone coverage along the routes, including in tunnels?

I'm highly doubt it. There were places along the Shore Line that has ACSES, yet cell phone service (and even radio reception) was spotty.

ThirdRail7 wrote:

JimBoylan wrote:Will a byproduct of Positive Train Control be better WiFi and cell phone coverage along the routes, including in tunnels?

I'm highly doubt it. There were places along the Shore Line that has ACSES, yet cell phone service (and even radio reception) was spotty.

Also, PTC does not require much data throughput, no need for high data rates or bandwidth like wifi or cellular.

but IF theyre running new fibre optic cables for PTC , it probably wouldnt cost much more to add data cables , to antenna in places like tunnels .

Funds for PTC installation will most likely not be used to add data systems to trains for Wifi. The wifi picks up off verizon towers and unless verizon wants to pay amtrak to install cell towers along the ROW its not going to happen. The data needed for PTC operations can travel over a 14.4k modem in seconds. Theres really not much to it. Hell even the downloads off the locomotives for ACSES can still fit on a floppy disk! Im not kidding, it is an option in the download program. Most of the fiber installed on the ROW is used for just signaling systems and signaling system control actually. Fiber replaces older copper technology that has been prone to failures during poor weather etc.

When I took Amtrak 178 from Phildelphia to Stamford this past Thursday
It was a little sluggish
Should have more then one router per train
So that way it won't get overloaded

Once again I'm greatly disappointed by Amtrak's Wifi offering. Folks, this is the 21st century. It should just work. I honestly can't recall the last time I've used the onboard Wi-fi and found it even barely acceptable.

In this case, the wifi router is not handing out IP addreses (the DHCP router appears to be failing).

Generally a reboot fixes this (though that's indicative of crappy equipment).

I mention it to the conductor and his answer was basically "Oh well".

Rather than spend 2 minutes walking back to the empty cafe car (a separate rant and just doing the good old power-cycle, he can spend more time flirting with one of the passengers.

I rarely like to say less than positive things about crew members, but if you've got time to socialize, you have time to hit a power switch. If it's still not working then at least you can report, "we've tried what we can, sorry".

(and if the router's not in a place where the crew can power-cycle it, that's just bad design.)

Ok, an update.

The conductor finally went back and rebooted the router.

And... it's now working. I'm on the wireless. (still a bit clunky and slow, but I'm appreciative that he at least TRIED something (and very happy it worked).)

On a recent trip from NYP-Philly I could barely get the Amtrak Wifi to load a web page on my tablet. The signal was extremely bad and almost to the point when you wonder why they would bother doing it. They need to come up with a much better system.

Yeah.

To be clear, I've have (had) two issues.

The first is that wifi does not work nearly as well as one would hope. Moving to 4G on more of the trains will definitely help however.

The second was the attitude (which as noted, he did change his mind) of the crew. I'm not expecting miracles. I'm expecting, ok, hoping, for at least a basic attempt. I recognize their primary duty is the safe operation of the train. Had he been busy with other duties, I'd have thought nothing. But when he clearly had time to chit-chat about passengers, I get a bit bothered.

Anyway, let's hoping they get 4G on more trains soon.

Greg Moore wrote: The second was the attitude (which as noted, he did change his mind) of the crew. I'm not expecting miracles. I'm expecting, ok, hoping, for at least a basic attempt. I recognize their primary duty is the safe operation of the train. Had he been busy with other duties, I'd have thought nothing. But when he clearly had time to chit-chat about passengers, I get a bit bothered.

Sooooooo. Let me make sure I understand this. I've read on this very board that the train crew is often unfriendly. Now, you've found one that is friendly, and you seemed to be annoyed. What were they chit chatting about?

Someone seems like they needed attention.

PM the train number and I'll make sure you two hug it out. Perhaps the entire crew can upgrade you to business class and take turns staring at you.

Still luv you though!

ThirdRail7 wrote:

Greg Moore wrote: The second was the attitude (which as noted, he did change his mind) of the crew. I'm not expecting miracles. I'm expecting, ok, hoping, for at least a basic attempt. I recognize their primary duty is the safe operation of the train. Had he been busy with other duties, I'd have thought nothing. But when he clearly had time to chit-chat about passengers, I get a bit bothered.

Sooooooo. Let me make sure I understand this. I've read on this very board that the train crew is often unfriendly. Now, you've found one that is friendly, and you seemed to be annoyed. What were they chit chatting about?

Someone seems like they needed attention.

PM the train number and I'll make sure you two hug it out. Perhaps the entire crew can upgrade you to business class and take turns staring at you.

Still luv you though!

Already on to my next train. Where the wifi seems to actually be working! Yeah!

As for what they were talking about: I believe it was how his wife had come home at 11:00 PM and picked a fight with him and about the recent wedding he had been in.

As for friendliness, I generally find the crews friendly, but not uniformly helpful.

(as a complete aside, one of the friendliest most help crew members I saw was one off duty. A gentleman boarded an Empire Service train and then waited for us to depart the station before asking around when we'd get into Philly. The woman sitting behind him, who was an off-duty conductor I recognized, pulled out her employee time table and sadly had to inform him the next stop was Croton-Harmon and wait for a south-bound Amtrak train. However, she suggested he go forward and find the conductor explain his plight. Next thing I knew we were making the fastest stop at Yonkers I've ever experienced. Obviously just enough time to open the door, a single passenger alight, and then close the door. While I'm sure we actually came to a full and complete stop, it wasn't for very long

As FAA moves to relax device restrictions, ridership on gadget-friendly trains and buses surges

Professor Joe Schwieterman at the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at De Paul University and his researchers annually stalk transit passengers to document how many of them are using devices onboard. From 2010 to 2013, his latest study found gadget use on Greyhound Bus Lines went up from 17.9 percent to 43.6 percent. On Amtrak it rose from 34.4 percent to 52.1 percent.

Schwieterman partially attributes the recent increases in rail and bus ridership to how much friendlier they are towards whipping out a laptop or iPhone and getting online.

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/gadget-fr ... 6C10368995" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And those little LED screens become even more compelling after the sun goes down.

The Wi-Fi on the Cascades works pretty good...the drops in service are due to weird spots I know that normally don't have cell service but the carrier that WSDOT uses for the Cascades is working on adding better coverage anyways. And yes, the Cascades Wi-Fi works even in Canada! It roams on Telus up there.