Free Wi-Fi now standard on Acela Express

Written by jrood

Based on a successful three-month trial run, strong customer satisfaction and solid system performance, Amtrak is making free Wi-Fi a standard service offering for every passenger traveling on its high-speed Acela Express trains operating between Washington, D.C., and Boston and is moving forward with plans to expand it to other routes.

Known as AmtrakConnectSM, the Wi-Fi service has been delivering fast,
reliable and consistent connectivity to Amtrak customers since March 1 when the
trial program began. Recent on-board surveys reveal that about 115,000 Acela
Express passengers per month have logged-on, or about 39 percent of ridership.
In addition, 76 percent of those polled had a favorable or strongly favorable
opinion of the service and with overall system performance.

"We’ve had tremendous
positive passenger response to having Wi-Fi available onboard and keeping it
free of charge will support increased ridership growth," said Matt Hardison,
Amtrak chief, sales distribution and customer service, noting planned upgrades
to the existing service include increased bandwidth to allow for greater access
to video files.

Amtrak also plans to
expand Wi-Fi service to other routes contingent on available funding. To
advance this goal, Amtrak has just issued a Request for Proposals for vendors
to identify, procure, install and maintain Wi-Fi on its fleet nationwide,
including for: its remaining passenger equipment in the northeast, the Northeast
Regional service; for long-distance, overnight trains; and for passenger
equipment used in corridor services across the U.S. This work is expected to
begin by late fall 2010 and will start with Amtrak California services routes,
followed by the Northeast Regional service.

With the exception of Acela
Express, Amtrak trains do not operate with a fixed set of passenger cars. As
such, the Wi-Fi solution selected by the RFP process must be able to function in
different train configurations including when cars of different types (i.e.,
coach, diner, and sleeper) are mixed together, when individual cars are
switched between different trains, and when groups of cars from one train are
split from, or connected to, another train while en route.

In addition,
AmtrakConnect is available for all Amtrak passengers within the gate areas of
Washington Union Station, Baltimore Penn Station, Wilmington Station,
Philadelphia 30th Street Station, New York Penn Station, Providence Station and
Route 128 Station in Boston. Wi-Fi service continues to be available in all
Club Acela lounges in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

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