Amtrak Upgrades Wi-Fi

New submitter WillgasM writes "A bit of good news for American travelers, according to the New York Times: 'After years of criticism of the wireless service on its trains, Amtrak announced on Thursday that it had upgraded its cellular-based Wi-Fi using broadband technologies that will improve the speed and reliability of the Internet in its passenger cars.' So far the service has been rolled out on the high-speed Acela lines and a few routes in California, but they hope to have the rest of their trains upgraded by the end of Summer. We're still an order of magnitude away from high-speed rails in other countries, but it's nice to know someone's trying."

Re:I believe I speak for a dozen people when I say

[milbournosphere]

Amtrak doesn't do horribly in the southern coast region, either. With the upgraded wifi, the only real argument against taking the train is the time required to move anywhere. From LA to San Luis Obispo is around 6 hours, vs 4 at the most via automobile. From SLO to San Diego, the end of the line, can take almost 10 hours at times. I can drive there in a little over half the time.

That said, the seats are comfortable, the cars are relatively quiet, the wifi seems to be improving, and I've had worse free coffee. It beats driving on cost, and beats flying on both cost and convenience in that I don't need to give up my civil rights to get on the train (yet). I yearn for the day that CA and other places have high speed rail.

Re:I believe I speak for a dozen people when I say

[betterunixthanunix]

then again, when does a program work out well that federal money supports

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_mission [wikipedia.org]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_highway_system [wikipedia.org]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_canal [wikipedia.org]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_dam [wikipedia.org]

...just to name a few. I guess if you just ignore the successes of the US government (except for your personal favorite), though, federal money would seem to be wasted on failure.