Amtrak Wi-Fi (WiFi) Availability

When USRA was putting Conrail together in the 1970's they found that a railroad r/w had tremendous value to anyone wanting to run a long-distance transmission line of any kind because it spared them the need to negotiate with multiple individual property owners. A property 50 feet wide and hundreds of miles long has value if you need to run a transmission line; UP wouldn't need to have a use for the line in order to profit from allowing it.

So it would come down to whether Amtrak could find the money to pay UP.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2024 10:30 amNot only that, it could also serve UP's benefit as well because that line can be used for rail control. So it may be worth it to have Amtrak pay to put it in as long as they can also put in backup fiber optics.

Having UP as a customer would improve the ROI on installing the fiber but I would expect the opposite: UP installs their own fiber network for their own use and leases excess capacity to whomever needs it. Or UP could rely on one of the independent fiber companies that already lease their ROW.

NICTD in northwest Indiana built a redundant fiber network on their ROW between South Bend and Chicago. They have aerial fiber on one side of the track and buried fiber on the other side of the track (in most places). They used it for CTC and the PTC backhauls should also be on their fiber. But they also lease their excess capacity as an alternate to fiber optic providers that are using the nearby Norfolk Southern ROW.

I don't see Amtrak investing outside of their ROW. Perhaps along the Michigan Line to Kalamazoo?

Jersey Jeff wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2010 10:39 am

Two cell phones w/o data plans already cost me $100/month, so a data plan is out of my budget. If Greyhound, Bolt Bus, etc. can have free WiFi onboard, I don't know why this is such a PITA for Amtrak. Not having wifi on Amtrak's trains in 2010 is an embarrassment for the railroad, IMHO.

The buses travel on highways where cellular service is typically good. Much of Amtrak is through rural areas with no cell service. My experience on Amtrak in the west is that my phone got cell service only when the train was near a highway or a town.

Ken W2KB wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 10:49 am The buses travel on highways where cellular service is typically good. Much of Amtrak is through rural areas with no cell service. My experience on Amtrak in the west is that my phone got cell service only when the train was near a highway or a town.

Yes, the wifi is the best part about being bustituted. And it is a situation that may get worse before it gets better, insofar as "5g" cellular signals reach do not reach as far as 4g or 3g.