NEC WiFi

[amamba]

I am on the southbound 93 right now on the way to NYP and the WiFi is working very well. Huge improvement over the service on the Acela.

 

[gatelouse]

Huge improvement over Acela! I wonder whether the Regional trains have newer WiFi/cellular equipment, or fewer passengers on the Regional are aware of the WiFi, or a combination of both.

 

[amamba]

And am back on rhe acela today - 2154 - and the wifi is agonizingly slow. I gave up on trying to use my tablet and am back on my 3G iPhone. I am having trouble loading simple sites such as the new York times and this board using the WIFi. And a guy behind me us complaining about how awful the wifi is to a colleague.

My guess is that there were less people using the wifi on the refional. I didn't see any signs or stickers like they have on acela advertising the service.

 

[afigg]

And am back on rhe acela today - 2154 - and the wifi is agonizingly slow. I gave up on trying to use my tablet and am back on my 3G iPhone. I am having trouble loading simple sites such as the new York times and this board using the WIFi. And a guy behind me us complaining about how awful the wifi is to a colleague.

My guess is that there were less people using the wifi on the refional. I didn't see any signs or stickers like they have on acela advertising the service.

The WiFi on the Regionals and other eastern trains is in a soft roll-out phase. The stickers and formal announcements will likely be put up once all the Amfleet I cars have been upgraded and all the trains that are supposed to have WiFi, have it. As for speed, until WiFi has been announced or more people find out about it, won't get a fair comparison to the Acelas. The Acelas use the same technology vendor as the Amfleet Is. It could be that the routers in the Amfleet I café cars were installed with more channel capacity as they realized in the initial setup in the Acelas was inadequate. Some retrofit or simple upgrades with additional channel cards may be needed for the Acelas.

 

[R30A]

Currently waiting in the waiting area of NY Penn. Posters advertising WIFI on northeast trains are being put up in the acela side as I type. Looks like it is being unveiled today.(although it was working fantastically a week ago.)

 

[X]

It could be that the routers in the Amfleet I café cars were installed with more channel capacity as they realized in the initial setup in the Acelas was inadequate. Some retrofit or simple upgrades with additional channel cards may be needed for the Acelas.

Unless there are unused antenna on the roof then just adding more air cards won't cut it, they need more antenna and cables too.

I don't know if the Acelas were setup to be 4G capable, but I believe that all the new installations were, and that make things much snappier.

 

[jb64]

On 156 out of cvs now and wifi works great. Love it

 

[afigg]

The addition of WiFi to the east coast Amfleet I equipped trains is now official with a Amtrak Adds Free WiFi to more Trains news release posted today.

Besides the NE Regionals, Empire service, Keystone, Carolinian, Ethan Allen, Springfield Shuttle, and Vermonter, the news release notes the following trains have service in only some cars: "Wi-Fi also is installed on four other routes as part of this expansion, but only in select cars marked with hotspot window stickers because these trains are made up of different types of equipment: Adirondack (New York – Montreal), Maple Leaf (New York – Toronto), Palmetto (New York – Savannah, Ga.), and Pennsylvanian (New York – Philadelphia – Pittsburgh.)"

This means the Amfleet Is have WiFi while the Amfleet II don't, which could lead to people going to the Amfleet I cars, grab an empty seat and get on the net. Amtrak should go ahead and wire the Amfleet IIs for WiFi, if they have not started on it already, to get those cars taken care of.

 

[gatelouse]

Putting WiFi on the Amfleet IIs before the Viewliner sleepers means that coach passengers on the eastern LDTs would have an amenity that sleeper passengers wouldn't. You'd have to set up WiFi in the Viewliners at the same time.

Plus, if people on mixed Amfleet I & II trainsets are voluntarily cramming themselves into the Am-I for the wifi, then that's more seats available in the Amfleet II cars for me!

 

[SarahZ]

I wonder if there's any chance they'll add it to the LDRs within the next year. It would be awesome to have Wi-Fi on the SWC.

 

[VentureForth]

The November 7th timetable and the current Amtrak website shows that the Palmetto is now included in the Wifi program. But the website says "Only in select cars". Anyone been on the Palmetto this week to see which cars have Wifi?

Also curious why they would add the Palmetto before adding the Silvers...

 

[Ryan]

I think that it's because it runs with a mix of AFI and AFII cars.

 

[afigg]

The November 7th timetable and the current Amtrak website shows that the Palmetto is now included in the Wifi program. But the website says "Only in select cars". Anyone been on the Palmetto this week to see which cars have Wifi?

Also curious why they would add the Palmetto before adding the Silvers...

The Amfleet I cars have been equipped with WiFi, but not the Amfleet IIs. In order for the WiFi in the AFI coach car to work, the consist has to have a AF1 I café car where the router is located and which the coach car can be directly connected to.

Looking it up, the consist for the Palmetto was listed several years as having 3 AFII coach cars, 1 AFI café car, and 1 AFI coach car. So the café car and AFI coach cars will have WiFi. Which is likely to make for a crowded café car as the people in the AFII cars hang out at the tables to get on the net. Which could lead to increased sales at the café counter for a bump in food revenue.

If there are LD trains with a single AFI coach car added on for capacity, the WiFi won't work which could lead to unhappy customers pointing to the WiFi stickers and complaining. As I noted earlier, the near term solution is to at least get the AFII coach cars and café/diners wired for WiFi so the eastern LD trains are partially covered.

The Viewliner and Superliner sleepers could present a technical challenge as internal metal walls will block signals from a WiFi hub located in the public area of the car. They may have to wire the sleepers with multiple hubs.

 

[montgomerySutton]

Sick... Can't wait for my next Adirondack trip!!

 

[Anderson]

The November 7th timetable and the current Amtrak website shows that the Palmetto is now included in the Wifi program. But the website says "Only in select cars". Anyone been on the Palmetto this week to see which cars have Wifi?

Also curious why they would add the Palmetto before adding the Silvers...

The Amfleet I cars have been equipped with WiFi, but not the Amfleet IIs. In order for the WiFi in the AFI coach car to work, the consist has to have a AF1 I café car where the router is located and which the coach car can be directly connected to.

Looking it up, the consist for the Palmetto was listed several years as having 3 AFII coach cars, 1 AFI café car, and 1 AFI coach car. So the café car and AFI coach cars will have WiFi. Which is likely to make for a crowded café car as the people in the AFII cars hang out at the tables to get on the net. Which could lead to increased sales at the café counter for a bump in food revenue.

If there are LD trains with a single AFI coach car added on for capacity, the WiFi won't work which could lead to unhappy customers pointing to the WiFi stickers and complaining. As I noted earlier, the near term solution is to at least get the AFII coach cars and café/diners wired for WiFi so the eastern LD trains are partially covered.

The Viewliner and Superliner sleepers could present a technical challenge as internal metal walls will block signals from a WiFi hub located in the public area of the car. They may have to wire the sleepers with multiple hubs.

Honestly? Depending on the distribution of sleepers as the Viewliner IIs come out, it might make more sense to refurbish some food service cars (IIRC, Amtrak almost has too many of these versus other types of equipment) as "first class lounges" and wire those in the vein of the PPC. The sleepers are likely to be a real pain in the rear to get set up from what you're saying, and I'd also note that there's going to be a lot of stress on the dining cars going forward if you spike sleeper capacity by 50% and most of those slots are regularly full.

 

[afigg]

Honestly? Depending on the distribution of sleepers as the Viewliner IIs come out, it might make more sense to refurbish some food service cars (IIRC, Amtrak almost has too many of these versus other types of equipment) as "first class lounges" and wire those in the vein of the PPC. The sleepers are likely to be a real pain in the rear to get set up from what you're saying, and I'd also note that there's going to be a lot of stress on the dining cars going forward if you spike sleeper capacity by 50% and most of those slots are regularly full.

Amtrak has converted 20 Amfleet I cafe cars to coach cars with the stimulus funding. So there are fewer excess cafe cars than before and Amtrak has additional coach cars to put into service. Whether Amtrak still has additional cafe cars to spare, don't know.

A big drawback with converting Amfleet I cafe cars into some sort of first class lounge car are the small windows on the Amfleet Is. I guess they could put into large lounge seats and convert the cafe counter area into a self-serve food area (vending machines) to keep conversion costs down. Better use of funds would be to buy a bunch of Viewliner II lounge cars along with coach cars, etc, but anything along those lines is on hold until the funding status of the LD trains is resolved.

 

[gatelouse]

Looking it up, the consist for the Palmetto was listed several years as having 3 AFII coach cars, 1 AFI café car, and 1 AFI coach car. So the café car and AFI coach cars will have WiFi. Which is likely to make for a crowded café car as the people in the AFII cars hang out at the tables to get on the net. Which could lead to increased sales at the café counter for a bump in food revenue.

The consists for the Palmetto and Pennsy generally look like this, right?

Amfleet I Business

Amfleet I Cafe

Amfleet II Coaches (3)

Amfleet I Coach

So would the rearmost coach get WiFi, being separated from the cafe by a string of Amfleet IIs?

 

[X]

Looking it up, the consist for the Palmetto was listed several years as having 3 AFII coach cars, 1 AFI café car, and 1 AFI coach car. So the café car and AFI coach cars will have WiFi. Which is likely to make for a crowded café car as the people in the AFII cars hang out at the tables to get on the net. Which could lead to increased sales at the café counter for a bump in food revenue.

The consists for the Palmetto and Pennsy generally look like this, right?

Amfleet I Business

Amfleet I Cafe

Amfleet II Coaches (3)

Amfleet I Coach

So would the rearmost coach get WiFi, being separated from the cafe by a string of Amfleet IIs?

No.