Wifi Trial coming to CSS&SB

A 60 day 'trial' deployment of Wifi access on the South Shore line will commence in April, providing wireless access for about 7 miles during the trial. If the trial proves successful, the plan is to expand the service area to eventually cover most of the South Shore Line.

http://thetimesonline.com/articles/2006 ... 7fc69d.txt

Now, 7 miles is hardly anything, but if successful, I would hope Metra considers a similar service for us commuters.

I know this stretch well, and others that do (mikeF, PRR??) will agree that the trial will be kind of silly because the trains really cook through this part of the dunes - you'll hardly have RR.NET loaded and the section will be over - however, if the wifi goes system wide, we can stream real-time CSS recordings and travel reports.

Hmm, if they're looking for a nice slow area to test it in, there are other suitable routes. MED, I'm looking in your direction...

I would nominate the UP-N line as another slow route candidate, particularly the segment between Wilmette and Ravinia. Might not work on express trains, but the local trains aren't exactly breaking speed limits in this area, since there are nine stations squeezed within this seven mile area. But the real WiFi winners would be those who ride the seasonal "Ravinia specials" from OTC, where it isn't uncommon for trains to creep along at 15-20mph or so north of Wilmette...

Yep, I see I'm not the only one that thought 7 miles of high-speed line was a kind of odd choice to impliment wirless internet. We had a bit of a talk about this at work the other night. I figured a better spot would be anywhere west of Gary...where most of the traffic is.

PRRGuy wrote:Yep, I see I'm not the only one that thought 7 miles of high-speed line was a kind of odd choice to impliment wirless internet. We had a bit of a talk about this at work the other night. I figured a better spot would be anywhere west of Gary...where most of the traffic is.

From the little info provided, it appears they chose this section of high speed running on purpose - the purpose being to test the handover between cells at high speed.

Of course the trial is of very limited usefulness to the public, but I imagine they'll have technicians going over that segment of line to get it working properly.