Why no wifi on the Cardinal, explained

[CHamilton]

The American Midwest: Traveling where the cloud can’t follow

The title is a bit misleading. The author is talking about poor internet connections in West Virginia and southwestern Ohio. Verizon's coverage map:

 

[Howitzer]

West Virginia is a government mandated divested market for Verizon, hence the reason you have data roaming when going through that area. Maybe someday the guv will release the spectrum to Verizon but don't count on that.

 

[Thirdrail7]

That and the Amfleet IIs aren't wifi equipped.

 

[William W.]

AmtrakConnect, in its current form, barely works where there is good service. I've been on the Cardinal many times, and while there is service along much of the route with Verizon, there is a portion in West Virginia that is completely void of any signal. I remember the gap being about an hour long. I'm not sure as to AT&T's situation out there, as we just switched to them from Verizon, and I haven't had the chance to test the service out on the Cardinal. AT&T would be the carrier to consider, as Amtrak contracts with them for the trains that are WiFi equipped, for the payment terminals onboard, and for the iPhones that the conductors use to scan tickets.

Just from looking at AT&T's coverage map, the coverage appears to be pretty good. Cellular coverage maps, however, often don't fully describe the situation on the ground, especially since the Cardinal goes through a lot of ravines, and other lower lying areas. Terrain such as that is particularly hard to cover, cellular wise.

I'd imagine that this is similar to what Amtrak is thinking when they hesitate to offer WiFi on LD trains: "Well, we can go through the considerable expense of outfitting our LD trains with WiFi, but since it won't work along significant portions of the route, passenger complaints will be high, and we may end up ticking off a lot more people than we do by not offering it."

 

[andersone]

So nice to see a map of home on the internet,, thought most people considered us to be a myth.

And Verizon works nicely at home,,, and on my recent EB trip I had service pretty solid to Minot then spotty to GPK

 

[TinCan782]

Perhaps related to the "National Quiet Zone"?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/10/08/218976699/enter-the-quiet-zone-where-cell-service-wi-fi-are-banned

 

[JayMadison]

I may be in the minority here but I thought it was great to have a day of no one being able to reach me from work

 

[Devil's Advocate]

AT&T would be the carrier to consider, as Amtrak contracts with them for the trains that are WiFi equipped, for the payment terminals onboard, and for the iPhones that the conductors use to scan tickets.

I wonder if Amtrak realizes that AT&T is one of the largest financial supporters of anti-rail candidates. Foot, meet lead bullet.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I may be in the minority here but I thought it was great to have a day of no one being able to reach me from work

Outstanding!☺

 

[afigg]

Perhaps related to the "National Quiet Zone"?

The Cardinal and CSX route skirt around the edges of the National Radio Quiet Zone. That may be deliberate as the railroad line was there long before the zone was established and placing restrictions on radio communications and base stations for the railroad would have interfered with railroad operations. The zone is shown as a large box, but there are radio stations and transmitters in the box outside of the core area, but they are subject to additional restrictions on placement, frequency, and power than they would be outside the box. The tight restrictions on cell phone towers, radio transmitters, etc is limited to a smaller area around the Greenbank radio telescope. Which, of course, is now the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope because there were not enough things in WV named after Senator Byrd.

The Cardinal may go through more dead zones for cell phone coverage, regardless of provider, than any of the eastern LD trains. It is not just WV, but there are mutliple dead zones in VA in the valleys away from the towns and major highways, I live in the Northern Virginia, but I don't have to drive that far to encounter no cell coverage in a valley, ravine, or be masked by a ridge.

 

[andersone]

That zone is all about he large radio telescope isn't it?

 

[tricia]

I may be in the minority here but I thought it was great to have a day of no one being able to reach me from work

Yes! Me too! Not just work, but the currently prevailing assumption that everyone should be reachable all the time.

 

[JayMadison]

I may be in the minority here but I thought it was great to have a day of no one being able to reach me from work

Yes! Me too! Not just work, but the currently prevailing assumption that everyone should be reachable all the time.

Yea, the Cardinal was the most relaxed i've been in like 5 years, dunno why if it was the OBS, or the people or the awesomeness of having sleeper but man it recharged me.

 

[NAVYBLUE]

That zone is all about he large radio telescope isn't it?

Yep, that and some stuff they didn't want you to know about in 1966. It is all obsolete now. When I was graduating from NAVY Electronic Technician school I requested Hawaii, Australia and Sugar Grove, WV. All (3) had long range communication stations that were condsidered prime shore duty for Electronic Techs and Radiomnan in the NAVY. The others were Sabana Seca, P.R. and Key West Comm Station, FL.

I got AFWR, Roosevelt Roads, P.R.. Sugar Grove would have been nice with the outdoor rec activities and (5) hours from home in southwest PA.

Like me some West Virgina.

NAVYBLUE

 

[NE933]

The 'old' AT&T used to use the NE Corridor right of way to lay it's optical cables.

 

[sechs]

This seems a bit silly to me.

Even satelite service isn't 100%. Ask any DirecTV, Dish, Sirius, or XM subscriber. There will be dead spots, and, for a free service, that is acceptable.

I see the dead zone around Vandenberg AFB as an excuse to enjoy the view.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

AT&T would be the carrier to consider, as Amtrak contracts with them for the trains that are WiFi equipped, for the payment terminals onboard, and for the iPhones that the conductors use to scan tickets.

I wonder if Amtrak realizes that AT&T is one of the largest financial supporters of anti-rail candidates. Foot, meet lead bullet.

Isnt every cell phone providers and telecommuniction corps. GOP supporters?

 

[William W.]

Sigh, another unnecessary mention of politics. Let me put this one to rest right now.

Corporate America funds both sides heavily. Both Romney and Obama received the majority of their campaign finance from Corporations, and wealthy individuals.

In terms of one side receiving "more" support from big business, there really isn't a clear frontrunner. It depends on the election, and the economic conditions. Wall Street backed Obama overwhelmingly in 2008 because of his inevitability, and because they wanted to try to secure whatever wave of additional bailouts were coming.

In 2012, it was much more even.

At the end of the day, corporations are going to back the person (or party) that they perceive will support their interests the most. They don't really side with any ideology.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Corporate America is largely republican and Democrat since they both support LARGE business to the exclusion of both ordinary citizens and small business.

 

[William W.]

This seems a bit silly to me.

Even satelite service isn't 100%. Ask any DirecTV, Dish, Sirius, or XM subscriber. There will be dead spots, and, for a free service, that is acceptable.

I see the dead zone around Vandenberg AFB as an excuse to enjoy the view.

It's a matter of benefit vs. cost. Amtrak probably has decided that any boost in ridership that would result from the installation of WiFi on the LD trains would be insufficient to cover the cost of installing WiFi routers and cellular modems on several hundred railcars, and paying hefty service fees to the carriers.

I'm sure that Amtrak would love to be able to offer AmtrakConnect on all of their trains, but there are simply more important things for Amtrak to spend its limited resources on right now.

 

[andersone]

albeit count me in the geek column,,,, I would prefer Amtrak spend what it has on rolling stock, and perhaps a more robust sustainability effort than wi-fi,,, I know I have clamored these screens for better wi fi before,,, but I have come to my senses after my recent EB trip,,,,

 

[WoodyinNYC]

. . . I would prefer Amtrak spend what it has on rolling stock, and perhaps a more robust sustainability effort than wi-fi . . .

Both? And? Surely, surely the new LD equipment

will have Wi-Fi capability. The notion that Viewliner IIs

would ride 4 hours down the NEC without Wi-Fi is

not a happy thought at all.

 

[William W.]

Again, I think it's a matter of bigger fish to fry. Expanded WiFi service is on the list, but I'm sure it's not very high up.

 

[SarahZ]

I want both. I don't really mind not having wi-fi on the LD trips, but my boyfriend is on call pretty much 24/7 and hates being "out of touch" if there's a bug that needs to be fixed or he's trying to communicate with his team. Even when he's on vacation, he's not really on vacation. He simply gets bothered fewer times per day.

If they can draw in more riders by having wi-fi, then perhaps that will bring in more money to improve the rolling stock and it will be a win-win. That's a huge generalization on my end, though, as I don't know anything about Amtrak's budget. It's just a happy thought.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Again, I think it's a matter of bigger fish to fry. Expanded WiFi service is on the list, but I'm sure it's not very high up.

I'm assuming that building in the Wi-Fi gear is much simpler and cheaper than the retrofits they had to do on the Acelas, Regionals, and state-sponsored trains. So to build it in on CAF's 25 sleepers, 25 diners, and 10 bag-dorms should not cost much.

Now thinking about it, I'm sure I read that the Oregon Talgos were held up because WI had approved them without Wi-Fi. By the time Oregon assumed the order, either Amtrak or the FRA had put in a policy that ALL new passenger cars must have Wi-Fi. So they had to retrofit before they left the plant.