Do Amfleet II coaches have wifi?

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Andrea

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I will be traveling from SC to NYC on the 18th, and I'm trying to find out if the trains I will be taking will have Wifi or not. I'm taking the 92 Silver Star northbound, and 91 Silver Star southbound. I've googled a few different ways of phrasing my question but nothing gave me a definite answer.
 
Sorry, right now the only trains with wifi are the Acela and the Coast Starlight.
And the Downeaster and the Cascades trains.

The Amfleet I equipped east coast corridor trains are scheduled to get free WiFi added in October, but we are now at mid-month and there has been no word. The California corridor trains are scheduled for November, the Autotrain lounge cars for December.

Beyond that, there has been no announced schedule for additional WiFi roll-outs. However, if Amtrak can wire some 430 Amfleet Is for WiFi, adding WiFi gear to 145 Amfleet II cars should be a straight forward process. On the other hand, customers would want WiFi in the Viewliner sleepers and that could need adding WiFi cable connections through the Heritage diner cars. Which are going to be retired in the next few years, so the cost for modifying a soon to be retired piece of equipment could be a consideration.
 
A verizon Mifi can be purchased cheaply on ebay and that might solve your problem
 
Sorry, right now the only trains with wifi are the Acela and the Coast Starlight.
But as all the members that rode the Starlight to/from the Gathering will tell you, sadly Wifi is either snail like or non-existant in the Fantastic Parlor Car!
If the flaky dial-up class "WiFi" on the Coast Starlight is the sort of service that Amtrak is planning to roll out to the rest of the LD network they might as well put that plan on ice until they have had a chance to figure out what went so wrong and actually FIX the problem. If the Coast Starlight was the test train then it seems the test was a failure in my book. Very few folks will be impressed with Coast Starlight style "WiFi" on the rest of the network. A full rollout of the same service levels nationwide is likely to generate resentment with misleading advertising that doesn't pan out for most users.
 
On the other hand, customers would want WiFi in the Viewliner sleepers and that could need adding WiFi cable connections through the Heritage diner cars. Which are going to be retired in the next few years, so the cost for modifying a soon to be retired piece of equipment could be a consideration.
I guess that depends on the current consist; Viewliners/baggage before the diner or after it.
 
On the other hand, customers would want WiFi in the Viewliner sleepers and that could need adding WiFi cable connections through the Heritage diner cars. Which are going to be retired in the next few years, so the cost for modifying a soon to be retired piece of equipment could be a consideration.
I guess that depends on the current consist; Viewliners/baggage before the diner or after it.
The Heritage diner almost always goes between the Viewliner sleepers and the Amfleet coaches and lounge/dinner light car. Does not matter whether the sleepers are on the front or back end. If the central router is placed in the Amfleet II diner-light car - as is being done in the Amfleet I café cars - the connection from the local WiFi hub in the Viewliner sleeper has to be passed through the Heritage diner. I don't know if that is a cost issue for a diner that will be retired in several years. Or if the WiFi design will be handled differently for the LD trains with a 3G/4G router in the sleeper cars.
 
I think they should hold back on the "Wifi" until 4G service is in more places. Or at least explain that the current wifi is based off cell towers and therefore you're only going to get the same speed your phone does. Not to mention they have to also explain that there is a set amount of bandwidth, and when everyone uses it, it's divided among them.
 
Sorry, right now the only trains with wifi are the Acela and the Coast Starlight.
But as all the members that rode the Starlight to/from the Gathering will tell you, sadly Wifi is either snail like or non-existant in the Fantastic Parlor Car!
If the flaky dial-up class "WiFi" on the Coast Starlight is the sort of service that Amtrak is planning to roll out to the rest of the LD network they might as well put that plan on ice until they have had a chance to figure out what went so wrong and actually FIX the problem. If the Coast Starlight was the test train then it seems the test was a failure in my book. Very few folks will be impressed with Coast Starlight style "WiFi" on the rest of the network. A full rollout of the same service levels nationwide is likely to generate resentment with misleading advertising that doesn't pan out for most users.
The Acela was the test train for the national rollout, it's a different system from the one used on the CS.
 
I think they should hold back on the "Wifi" until 4G service is in more places. Or at least explain that the current wifi is based off cell towers and therefore you're only going to get the same speed your phone does. Not to mention they have to also explain that there is a set amount of bandwidth, and when everyone uses it, it's divided among them.
That makes sense. I often wonder at the value of these "wifi hotspot" devices, which let other users tap into a single broadband mobile account, but apparently have the potential to dilute one's own connectivity significantly.
 
Or at least explain that the current wifi is based off cell towers and therefore you're only going to get the same speed your phone does.
Not even close. My phone's internet was actually usable in urban areas and along major highways while the CS' own "WiFi" was missing in action for pretty much the whole entire journey. So far as I am aware my experience was fairly typical as per fellow passengers, staff members, AU posters, etc. In some ways the advertising of a service unrendered is more annoying to me than if they simply never bothered to install in the first place.
 
Sorry, right now the only trains with wifi are the Acela and the Coast Starlight.
But as all the members that rode the Starlight to/from the Gathering will tell you, sadly Wifi is either snail like or non-existant in the Fantastic Parlor Car!
If the flaky dial-up class "WiFi" on the Coast Starlight is the sort of service that Amtrak is planning to roll out to the rest of the LD network they might as well put that plan on ice until they have had a chance to figure out what went so wrong and actually FIX the problem. If the Coast Starlight was the test train then it seems the test was a failure in my book. Very few folks will be impressed with Coast Starlight style "WiFi" on the rest of the network. A full rollout of the same service levels nationwide is likely to generate resentment with misleading advertising that doesn't pan out for most users.
The Acela was the test train for the national rollout, it's a different system from the one used on the CS.
And the acela wifi is still pretty crappy, in my experience, especially between BOS & NYP (mostly through CT).

Like some of the others, I found the CS wifi to be not working at all during my trip in March - meanwhile my mifi (off the verizon cell network) was working fine in the PPC.
 
I can understand bandwidth limits but I didn't know Amtrak was specifically filtering out content. If a pervert wants to display something obscene on their computer it's not like they require a live internet connection to do so. I'm glad Amtrak is apparently taking an interest in their corporate image, but arbitrarily blocking online content might not be the best way to promote it. I doubt most of my internet access would break Amtrak's rules, but if I happen to be following a professionally written story about DOMA or something I don't want Amtrak's heavy handed proxy to get in the way.
 
I don't think that they are filtering elsewhere based on content, and expect this filtering to go away when this is formally launched.
Wifi on Acela is content filtered in addition to being bandwidth limited. The problem develops from the systems used to detect inappropriate content. Those systems can sometimes over-reach and block appropriate sites. Of course, people's opinions of what is and is not appropriate can vary. Amtrak has a mechanism to request the whitelisting of blocked sites. The request can be made through the "Wi-Fi Service" subject option of the "Contact Us" page at Amtrak.com.

From Amtrak:

Why are you blocking specific websites?Amtrak follows similar guidelines shared by many companies who offer Wi-Fi in a public space, in that we will block content deemed to be inappropriate for public viewing. If you have encountered a website which you feel has been incorrectly blocked by our automatic filter, let us know. We can honor appropriate requests to unblock specific sites.
 
Like some of the others, I found the CS wifi to be not working at all during my trip in March - meanwhile my mifi (off the verizon cell network) was working fine in the PPC.
Everyone who has complained so far on the grounds that Amtrak's wi-fi was not working but my cell/Mi-fi was working, please realize that Amtrak's wi-fi is bandwidth-limited as in, a hundred people are trying to access the internet using one access point while on your cell/mifi its just you connecting to the tower, so the probability of getting a connection through is much greater on your personal device than a shared wifi. To make a fair apple to apple comparison between Amtrak's supposedly-crappy wifi and internet connectivity using personal devices, only one passenger should be using the train's wifi at a time. Maybe the Dining Car attendant can issue "reservation slots" to individuals for wifi usage
mosking.gif
 
Everyone who has complained so far on the grounds that Amtrak's wi-fi was not working but my cell/Mi-fi was working, please realize that Amtrak's wi-fi is bandwidth-limited as in, a hundred people are trying to access the internet using one access point while on your cell/mifi its just you connecting to the tower, so the probability of getting a connection through is much greater on your personal device than a shared wifi.
Wow, that's one long sentence there Eagle. Have you ever attempted to use the internet on the Coast Starlight? Unless I'm mistaken the CS' "MIA-Fi" only exists in the PPC, which would mean there is nowhere near a hundred people accessing it. Ever. At most I saw maybe two or three people attempt to get on it at once. Nobody could use it long enough or fast enough to get much of anything done. It's every bit as bad as people are saying and the staff appear to be well aware of this. If the Amtrak staff themselves do not dispute our stated experiences then why would you? I've used internet on a plane that worked much better than anything I've seen on Amtrak. That's right. Thirty odd thousand feet up in the air at five hundred odd miles per hour and the internet was much faster and more stable. I'm not sure what's wrong, but I can tell you that to the average passenger Amtrak's "Wi-Fi" is not going to impress anyone if it follows the solution chosen for the CS.
 
Like some of the others, I found the CS wifi to be not working at all during my trip in March - meanwhile my mifi (off the verizon cell network) was working fine in the PPC.
Everyone who has complained so far on the grounds that Amtrak's wi-fi was not working but my cell/Mi-fi was working, please realize that Amtrak's wi-fi is bandwidth-limited as in, a hundred people are trying to access the internet using one access point while on your cell/mifi its just you connecting to the tower, so the probability of getting a connection through is much greater on your personal device than a shared wifi. To make a fair apple to apple comparison between Amtrak's supposedly-crappy wifi and internet connectivity using personal devices, only one passenger should be using the train's wifi at a time. Maybe the Dining Car attendant can issue "reservation slots" to individuals for wifi usage
mosking.gif
Well I woke up at 5 AM and was the only person attempting to use the wifi in the PPC, it STILL wasn't working. So that sounds like an apples to apples comparison to me.
 
I don't think that they are filtering elsewhere based on content, and expect this filtering to go away when this is formally launched.
Wifi on Acela is content filtered in addition to being bandwidth limited. The problem develops from the systems used to detect inappropriate content. Those systems can sometimes over-reach and block appropriate sites. Of course, people's opinions of what is and is not appropriate can vary. Amtrak has a mechanism to request the whitelisting of blocked sites. The request can be made through the "Wi-Fi Service" subject option of the "Contact Us" page at Amtrak.com.

From Amtrak:

Why are you blocking specific websites?Amtrak follows similar guidelines shared by many companies who offer Wi-Fi in a public space, in that we will block content deemed to be inappropriate for public viewing. If you have encountered a website which you feel has been incorrectly blocked by our automatic filter, let us know. We can honor appropriate requests to unblock specific sites.
I was referring to the filtering going on in the regional trains is obviously different and more restrictive.
 
I was referring to the filtering going on in the regional trains is obviously different and more restrictive.
Until the WiFi on the NE Regionals and other Amfleet I trains goes wide with an official roll-out, we won't know if the additional filter restrictions are temporary or a new policy by Amtrak. At the moment, the only source for finding extra restrictions is the blog linked to on the Greater Greater Washington website.

With the soft launch of WiFi for the eastern trains, we should have a new Amfleet WiFi thread for people to report to when they found the WiFi available and add comments about reliability, speed, website access.
 
Everyone who has complained so far on the grounds that Amtrak's wi-fi was not working but my cell/Mi-fi was working, please realize that Amtrak's wi-fi is bandwidth-limited as in, a hundred people are trying to access the internet using one access point while on your cell/mifi its just you connecting to the tower, so the probability of getting a connection through is much greater on your personal device than a shared wifi.
Wow, that's one long sentence there Eagle. Have you ever attempted to use the internet on the Coast Starlight? Unless I'm mistaken the CS' "MIA-Fi" only exists in the PPC, which would mean there is nowhere near a hundred people accessing it. Ever. At most I saw maybe two or three people attempt to get on it at once. Nobody could use it long enough or fast enough to get much of anything done. It's every bit as bad as people are saying and the staff appear to be well aware of this. If the Amtrak staff themselves do not dispute our stated experiences then why would you? I've used internet on a plane that worked much better than anything I've seen on Amtrak. That's right. Thirty odd thousand feet up in the air at five hundred odd miles per hour and the internet was much faster and more stable. I'm not sure what's wrong, but I can tell you that to the average passenger Amtrak's "Wi-Fi" is not going to impress anyone if it follows the solution chosen for the CS.
Ok, I have not used wifi on the Coast Starlight, in fact not been on that train at all, so I will take your word when you say that the wi-fi onboard that train sucks real bad. My intention was not to disprove anyone's claims. I was only stating one possible reason why passengers onboard a train might get bad or no internet coverage from a shared access point although they continue to receive coverage on personal devices. Also, surprising as it may sound, your experience with Wi-fi in a plane thirty thousand feet in the air traveling at five hundred miles per hour is actually going to be better than onboard a train on the ground travelling at fifty miles an hour. That's because the technologies used are different. In-flight Wi-fi is provided by satellites and signals "bouncing" off ground stations, having a clear line of sight to the plane in the air. On the other hand, in-train Wi-fi is provided using conventional cellphone towers whose line-of-sight path to the train frequently gets disrupted by various obstructions and things that "absorb" the signals, to put it in simple layman terms. But then, in the field of wireless communication, no technology stays as it is for more than a couple of years, there are changes being rolled out all the time, so for all we know, in a couple of years down the line we may have a technology that delivers better coverage in a train than in plane. Just a matter of time I believe.
 
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