NJ Transit to Be WiFied

Categorized | Wireless

Posted on04 September 2010. Tags: Transit, WiFied

NJ Transit trains and rail stations are adding WiFi, the transit agency said Wednesday. It is seeking a company to provide WiFi for its 12 rail lines and 165 train stations. An RFP is due by 4 p.m. on September 30, 2010,

NJ Transit said it hoped to award a contract by the end of the year and have the system available to riders by next year.

The cost of the service to riders, if any, will be determined by the terms of the winning proposal, NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett-Hackett said Wednesday. The transit agency said it expected the service would be provided “at no cost to the agency.”

It’s not a new idea:

Comcast is currently offering Wi-Fi at about 120 New Jersey Transit rail stations Cablevision filed a proposal to extend their Optimum WiFi network onto the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter rail trains. Cablevision’s Optimum Wi-Fi network, launched in 2008, covers more than 96 percent of Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad station platforms in the New York area. Cablevision’s Online customers can use it for free.
Time Warner Cable’s Wi-Fi is now available. TWC’s initial WiFi Zones (map) cover eight commuter rail platforms on the Long Island Railroad and four parks in Queens.
NYFI, which owns cell towers and operates a Distributed Antenna System in Manhattan, is proposing to offer free Wi-Fi access for all MTA commuters (pdf), recouping costs through advertising.
Amtrak announced this month that free wireless will become a standard service for passengers on Amtrak’s Acela Express trains. It follows a three-month trial run in which all 20 of Amtrak’s Acela Express cars provided free service. Amtrak says about 115,000 passengers per month have used the service, or about 39% of ridership. It plans to expand the wireless service to other routes starting in the late fall of 2010.
NOMAD was awarded a contract with train builder Talgo to deliver and operate a wireless broadband and passenger WiFi on all Talgo’s trains servicing their route from Vancouver, Canada through Seattle, Portland and Eugene, Oregon.
UTA Frontrunner trains in Salt Lake City, and the Amtrak Cascades service out of Seattle use Nomad Digital to provide the service. The UK company has seen an increase in orders from emerging economies such as China and Dubai, but said its biggest customers remained Norway and Holland.
Kris Erickson helped manage the deployment of Wi-Fi on 13 commuter rail lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which serves Boston and its suburbs, with one line extending to Providence, R.I. MBTA spent $1.9 million to equip the first 258 cars. Amtrak has allocated $300,000 in its 2010 budget to outfit the Acela Express with wireless access. Amtrak operates 20 high-speed trains, each of which includes six cars. WAAV supplied wireless routers to MBTA.