Free Wi-Fi and Mobile Ticketing Coming to Amtrak trains
Our family loves traveling by train. We often take the suburban Metra trains into Chicago when we visit museums or go sightseeing with out of town visitors. When it comes to traveling greater distances for extended vacations via Amtrak, it's been more of a contentious issue. The cost and time factors often leave us little choice but to travel by car, for convenience, or by plane, for the sake of time.
Amtrak is looking to change that and make traveling by train a more competitive option by introducing free Wi-Fi and better eTicketing and mobile ticketing services.
According to a new five year plan released by Amtrak on October 29, 2009, next year Amtrak plans to deploy Wi-Fi technology on its Northeast Acela Express high-speed train routes, which cover Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, and then expand the service to other routes over time. The initial Wi-Fi deployment will be free for use by passengers.
While this service is initially aimed at business travelers, it seems obvious vacationing families and individuals would also be much more likely to travel long distances by train if they knew they had reliable Wi-Fi internet access to keep them company.
Amtrak also plans to introduce and/or improve self-service reservation booking and ticket delivery programs to implement eTicketing, enhance current Quik-Trak ticket kiosks, better customize the Amtrak.com web site, and enable ticket retrieval by mobile device.
Amtrak trains already make it easier to work with laptops and other wireless devices than airlines do. Amtrak trains offer power outlets for use with computers and other devices and riders can also use mobile phones on trains except in "quiet cars." All of those things should make it easier and more convenient to book travel by rail for vacationers as well as business travelers.
“We must think big, be innovative and pursue opportunities and decisions that make good business sense because the competition is real,” said Amtrak President and CEO Joseph H. Boardman.
The five year plans seeks to align Amtrak’s goals with those passed by Congress in Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 and in the Obama administration’s Vision for High-Speed Rail in America.
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