Wi-Fi on Eastern LD Trains

I took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Raton to go to Philmont Scout Ranch, and then afterwards took it back to Chicago. On the westbound trip, I was in coach and I had wi-fi. I was able to watch youtube with it without a vpn for a while, and then it stopped working for that purpose, but still worked for other things like facebook. Sadly though, on the return trip, there was no wi-fi.

Even on current routes with wi-fi, they do not claim to provide bandwith for streaming video.

Thanks, Ryan. You answered my question. If we assume none of the connections to "long distance trains" at DC are to the Crescent (an unreasonable assumption) it's only an average of 27 north and 27 south per day. That isn't a whole Viewliner sleeper let alone a whole coach, so a through car to Florida wouldn't make any sense.

(P.S... at this time, of course. If connecting ridership increases, that could change.)

Ryan said:

It's saved on my computer desktop, I'll post it again when I get back to the computer. Or you can try to find it here, I know it's posted in the thread that I started about the report it was included in.

Had time to stop off at the computer on the way out the door.

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Did we say this before? Some graphic artist did a bang-up job with this one for Amtrak! So much info so clearly presented and easy to follow. Congratulations to whoever!

Eastern long distance WiFi is finally coming. Service will start being enabled on February 16 with official roll-out on February 29.

Now the number one question onboard the train will go from "Is there WiFi available" to "Why is the WiFi so slow/not working?" :giggle:

On #97 southbound. From Washington to Orlando - so far - there is a 4/4 bar Amtrak Connect signal, but no connection. Soon .. .

DooBdoo said:

On #97 southbound. From Washington to Orlando - so far - there is a 4/4 bar Amtrak Connect signal, but no connection. Soon .. .

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Just in time for it not to be turned on, due to signal costs.

Amtrak has free wifi on many of its regional and corridor trains, but there's wifi only on select long distance trains. Long distance trains such as the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, the Capitol Limited, etc do not have wifi at all.

Why does Amtrak not have wifi on its long distance trains?

Shorter distance trains tend to have business travelers as a substantial part of the clientele, while very few are to be found on long distance trains. Furthermore, the western trains pass through some very remote areas resulting in sketchy signals. Plus, there are other priorities besides Wifi in running the train well, and we know they more than their share of problems. As much as I am always on the Internet, I would rather spend my time on western trains looking at the scenery and meeting other passengers.

WIFI is relatively new. They have not finished rolling it out yet.

It started with Acela. People were asking the questions you are about regionals. Then Regionals got it. Then the West coast corridors got it. Then the midwest corridors. Now the Cardinal and Auto train have it, and in the next few weeks it will go live on the Crescent, Star, Meteor, and Lake Shore.

R30A said:

WIFI is relatively new. They have not finished rolling it out yet.

It started with Acela. People were asking the questions you are about regionals. Then Regionals got it. Then the West coast corridors got it. Then the midwest corridors. Now the Cardinal and Auto train have it, and in the next few weeks it will go live on the Crescent, Star, Meteor, and Lake Shore.

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Really? I looked on the Amtrak website and it doesn't say anything about the Cardinal having it.

Cost. Spareness of reliable signal. Knowledge of onboard staff to maintain operation.

That said, my last trip on the SWC included some wifi in my sleeper -- the SCA turned on the hot spot in his cell phone and posted the SSID and password at the top of the stairs for this secure signal for use by his passengers. No faster (or slower) than the hot spot signal from my own phone, but using his nickel instead of my own.

That SCA would rate a good tip!

CSXfoamer1997 said:

Amtrak has free wifi on many of its regional and corridor trains, but there's wifi only on select long distance trains. Long distance trains such as the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, the Capitol Limited, etc do not have wifi at all.

Why does Amtrak not have wifi on its long distance trains?

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It costs money and Amtrak has had tight budgets and federal funding levels in the past few years. WiFi is being added to the single level LD fleet and as noted, should be turned on soon for all the single level LD trains. The FY2015 budget had $6 million for installing WiFi equipment in the LD trains, the FY2016 budget still has not been posted (even though we are 4.5 months into the FY) so don't know the installation cost for this fiscal year. The FY15 budget and Five year Financial plan calls for expanding WiFI to the entire LD fleet, ie the Superliners, but with the caveat of being "contingent on the performance of and customer satisfaction with the first phase system."

Even when and if WiFi is added to the LD trains, coverage and adequate bandwidth are going to be less than solidly reliable. The trains will pass through dead zones with no 3G/4G coverage and even where there is a good signal to a local cell tower, 100 or 150 people on an LD train may overwhelm the network capacity of rural cell phone towers.

Well, I tried to post this while I was on the train the other day but had no luck. Ironically, it seemed that the wifi wanted to work for just about everything but railroad-related websites...

There's now wifi on, at a bare minimum, the Silver Star...though I think it's probably live on the whole single-level system (or close to it now). And yes, it works, though the speeds are often somewhat reminiscent of the 1990s (which sadly brings to mind an alt-hist where Amtrak had wifi starting then...yes, I know the limits of the technology). A text-based MOO (basically a MUD) I ran operated smoothly as did most messenger applications, but AU would not load (and a lot of other sites were painfully slow). There's wifi but it isn't perfect...but it's a lot better than nothing.

When I saw the card in my room on Monday night (3/14) announcing this (I was boarding at ORL) I did a mildly embarrassing fist pump (you have no idea how happy I was to see this) given how long there's been a teasing AmtrakConnect wifi network visible-but-not-working. The card listed all of the eastern overnight trains (Auto Train, Cardinal, Meteor, Star, Crescent, and LSL); the Palmetto already had wifi as a day train (it was in the same loose boat as the Adirondack and Pennsylvanian IIRC) and so didn't get a note, though I think wifi is out in all the cars on all of those trains now as well.

The slow connection is better than nothing (and understandable given a lot of the areas the trains go through) but nothing would have been better than the "teasing". I suspect this was one of the first trains with it; the SB Meteor on 3/10 was still "teasing" so the system probably got activated over the weekend. Either that or I was just on...basically the first run of the service (something that would truly thrill me in some ways) and it'll be going out elsewhere over the next few weeks.

Of particular note, this basically kills off the last (theoretical) advantages the Regionals had over the Silvers for me: Now the Silvers have arguably better seats, the ability to book a room, and (with the Meteor) far better food service.

CSXfoamer1997 said:

Amtrak has free wifi on many of its regional and corridor trains, but there's wifi only on select long distance trains. Long distance trains such as the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, the Capitol Limited, etc do not have wifi at all.

Why does Amtrak not have wifi on its long distance trains?

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In November east bound I had wi-fi on the Cardinal. It worked well as soon as we were out of New River Gorge, most of the time throughout the rest of the trip. It was not supposed to be on that train yet, but they certainly proved it worked!

In December west bound I had wi-fi on the SWC. I could get a connection the first evening, but could not actually do anything due to the number of people on the router (close to the theoretical maximum). Next morning, I got up early and it worked fine for me. Of course, there were spots where there was no signal, but I was able to send and receive email the rest of the way to LAX.

I see they are now advertising wi-fi on most eastern LD trains. Kind of funny they don't have it on the Cap Ltd, but that train may go through the most terrain with no cell signal. I also see they are still not advertising it on any western trains at all (including the SWC, where my SCA Peggy said it was a test).

oregon pioneer said:

CSXfoamer1997 said:

Amtrak has free wifi on many of its regional and corridor trains, but there's wifi only on select long distance trains. Long distance trains such as the Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, the Capitol Limited, etc do not have wifi at all.

Why does Amtrak not have wifi on its long distance trains?

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I also see they are still not advertising it on any western trains at all (including the SWC, where my SCA Peggy said it was a test).

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I too, got the same story from Peggy in late October. She told me the train I was on was the first SWC involved in the test roll out. I couldn't get it to work at all likely due to low bandwidth caused by high usage and the remoteness of many parts of the route where there are no cell towers for miles.

Haha, I had Peggy in February - same thing, WiFi but it was kind of spotty.

It's all Peggy's fault. LOL j/k. She's awesome, one of my favorite SCAs!

Working pretty well pn 91 today and yesterday...slow but working. Better than cell coverage actually.

Also the cafe is working well, busy but no long lines at all. Everyone seems satisfied - including in sleepers yesterday. The train is well occupied.

Took the Meteor from Orlando to NYC last month. WiFi was available most of the way (slow). But I was enjoying the scenario and fellow riders ... and enjoying being freed from my iPhone, iPad, and laptop!

An Amtrak press release has officially announced that Wi-Fi is available on the Silvers, LSL, Crescent, and Cardinal.

In related news, existing on-board equipment is getting the "latest next-generation Wi-Fi solution" which will "allow Amtrak to incorporate higher-speed backhaul technologies, such as trackside Wi-Fi and satellite."

Rode 92 (4/15/2016) and 91 (4/172016). Wifi was unusable. Could connect to the on-board router but not to the internet.

jb

Rode 49 to CHI Sunday am and WiFi was fine.

Been amazed by the performance of the WiFi today on the Crescent 20 (19). Outperforming the WiFi in the NEC that I am used too.

*knocks on wood*